


Brave Danny Flint

by kcsantos



Series: Ice and Blood [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, blood of the dragon assemble at the Wall, dragons lore nobody asked for, fulfillment of too many feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 05:38:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12204969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcsantos/pseuds/kcsantos
Summary: After so long wondering if she would ever feel warm again, the first thing Dany felt was the absence of the cold. The second was the sharp scent of the smoke. When she opened her eyes and looked across the snow, she found red eyes looking right through hers.Ghost was standing not too far, but what got her attention was Jon Snow.His face had the same expression of wonder as in that first time he saw the world from the top of the Wall. His grey eyes, full of that haunting feeling of beauty, were staring at her.





	1. Chapter 1

_“Corn, corn, corn,_ ” the raven went on and on, flapping its wings from one side of the room to the other. It stopped at the windowsill and looked at them.

Lord Commander Mormont ignored the bird, looked from the Maester to her, and back again. Then he looked at Benjen Stark and back to her again. You could see in the crease of his brows that he was not happy with the situation. In that she could agree with, at last. The Old Bear was reluctant and it was understandable, he had good reasons. The Night’s Watch wasn’t known for its female members, and hiding one under its roofs was dangerous and a great risk. They had argued for what seemed like hours, in which Dany had only spoken when directly regarded to.

Maester Aemon seemed intent on pleading her cause yet again, but the Lord Commander cut him with an exhausted sigh.

“The Others take the both of you,” he said, and Benjen smiled like it was a victory. “The Night’s Watch takes no part and this seems like taking part, if the King finds out what will he make of it? This is a terrible idea in every angle you wish to look at. But there is truth to it, the girl cannot go south so be the Wall or death.”

The raven sang, “ _Death, death, death_.”

A look of pity and sadness crossed Mormont’s eyes, there in a moment, gone the next.

She had seen that look many times before. Seen it on Ned Stark’s eyes and his brother’s Benjen, the old woman who owned the whorehouse at Mole’s Town, seen it on the fisherman in the old cabin by the Long Lake, even the blind singer in White Harbor had the same expression on his face. However, they did not know, only thought of her as an orphan bastard girl. Orphan she was, but not a bastard.

Daenerys Targaryen was the last living heir of the Mad King Aerys.

And that was such a terrible idea, but they were running out of choices. If Ned Stark was to go south with the Usurper, Benjen could not keep her safe and hidden on his own. She had to go farther north still, as far as she could. That was how she had ended up there, at the end of the world.

She was meant to hide, to disguise herself as a boy, to train at arms and serve as a brother of the Night’s Watch, to be a steward and _keep herself alive_. To dye her silver hair and lie about the violet of her eyes. To be no one but a bastard boy from Starfall. _Tell them to call you Sand; do not attract attention to your name or birth. If asked, your mother was a whore and you know nothing of your father_. That was what Benjen had said to her when he told of the plan to keep her hidden at Castle Black. Either was it his idea or Ned Stark’s made no difference, for she had to do as they bid.

“You will be in danger at all times. It takes only one of the men finding out and…” the Lord Commander trailed off troubled and uncertain. His eyes flicked to Maester Aemon and back to her again. “This place is not what it used to be. Not every black brother has Stark’s honor.”

There was a song, they said, about a northern girl who disguised herself as a boy to serve at the Night’s Watch. How it ended with the girl being raped and murdered, no one thought best to mention. In the end their vows did not save her. And the irony of the girl’s name was not lost to Dany.  _Brave Danny Flint_. It was a beautiful song, and sad.

Not for the first time Dany wondered if her fate at the Wall was better than the possible exile in the Free Cities, but when she asked Benjen he had only told her that King Robert would find her there as he had found her brother. Viserys died in Pentos with nothing but the reputation of a beggar king, killed with poison. Illyrio Mopatis, the magister who had helped her brother, had sent her a letter with his sentiments and nothing else. Her brother was gone and she couldn’t even remember him for she was just a babe when he left. Dany had no memories of her family. Her father was dead, her mother, her two brothers… All the dragons were gone, all but her.

Oft she would dream of dragons and when she did, she would wake up feeling stronger somehow. _I am the blood of the dragon_ , she would tell herself.

As she had before facing the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.

“I will watch over you, child. Keep you out of trouble,” Maester Aemon said, not unkindly. Dany only nodded and said her polite thanks. The Maester was very old and seemed respected and wise. Lord Commander valued his opinion most of all.

She lost herself in thoughts then, and the conversation around her was naught but faint noise. It was only when Benjen talked to her that Dany realized that she had been far away. Where, she could not tell.

“Will you be alright when I leave?” he asked again, a gentle smile on his face. He meant to leave for Winterfell a few days from there, to meet with Robert Baratheon, the Lannisters and whoever else that was coming north, and to keep Ned Stark’s worries about her at bay. They had talked about it all before.

“Yes, my lord. I appreciate the concern, but I will be fine on my own here. Also, I have the Maester to protect me,” Dany said with a smile of her own and Maester Aemon chuckled.

“Glad you two are getting acquainted already,” the Lord Commander said, “but there are still some matters to discuss of your staying here, my lady.”

“We should start by not calling her _lady_ ,” said Maester Aemon.

The first change would be her hair. The silver strands, which she had kept covered whenever she left her room, would be cut short and dyed blue. The blue would help to change the color of her eyes in the light. Violet, grey, blue… No one would be certain of it.

 _I am the blood of the dragon_.

The second change would be her clothes, and the ones Benjen had gotten for her were already mostly in black. They were bigger than hers and it did not fit her form to better hide her body, not that there was much to hide for Dany was slim with a petite form and small breasts, but it was better not to take chances. The heavy cloak was her favorite piece, the fur soft to the touch. Stark grey, brown and black. _It belonged to me, from when I was a boy_ , Benjen had told her with voice full of the fondness he possessed when talking of his childhood.

Dawn was almost breaking when they were done giving instructions, covering the plan, what she should do and how to behave. Dany and Benjen sneaked out of the castle unseen as they had come, only to go back hours later when the castle would be awake.

She looked back as they rode away, the faint light in the Lord Commander’s tower still there.

 _I am the blood of the dragon_ , she told herself again.

 

* * *

 

In the following days, Benjen took upon himself to teach her sword lessons to prepare for the future training she would have among the others. It would not do to be too good but neither would do to be too bad, nothing could draw attention and that included training under everyone’s sight. So early in the mornings, before the first sun light, they’d leave the castle behind and hide in the woods. The clash of steel would resonate in the trees that covered them and they would spare for a few hours until the sun started to shine, then they would go back to the castle and Benjen would busy himself as he always did.

He had gotten for her a longsword with a lighter pommel and crossguard, it was simple steel and when Dany got the grip it felt right somehow, like she could do it and fight and fend for herself. She had smiled then, and Ben asked, “You like it?”

“Yes,” Dany answered feeling the grip.

“It’s yours. Keep this one with you at all times, you will not train with it but you will fight with it. And when you’re older you might have a different one if you wish but this will serve you well for now.”

“Thank you,” she said and meant it.

In their first day of practice, Dany was nothing but sleepy, tired, and unsure. In the days that followed, the lack of sleep gave way to certainty but she felt no less tired. And with time even the tiredness seemed to disappear. She grew bold and faster, and there was a soothing feeling to the quiet of the woods and the sound of their swords clashing. And in the day prior to Benjen leaving for Winterfell, she felt like she could handle the training with other recruits, and better, that she could take care of herself if it came to it.

Dany did not wanted to be a great swordsman, had no delusions of greatness and was aware that compared to other men she had seen, her skill was acceptable at best. But the thought made her no less happy.

“You’re fierce,” Ben said to her in their way to Castle Black that last morning. “And you have a great strength in you.”

Every night she went to sleep sore and with a new bruise in her body, but the soreness was a good reminder of what she could do. Or she made herself believe so.

The next morning, she found Benjen in the stables ready to go.

A feeling of uneasiness had been taking over the closer it got to his departure. It did not matter how hard she tried to convince herself that it had happened before and would happen again, she’d always felt like that. Benjen was the closest thing to a friend she had. And he was hardly around but when he was, he was kind and talked to her about anything and everything. Dany had more company now, but the black brothers were strangers and most were frightening, giving her looks and crooked smiles of mockery. And it was so cold and the people colder still.

“How long will you be gone?” Dany asked.

Benjen looked from his horse at her and she could see in his eyes that he knew, despite her trying to hide it. Fear crawls at you like the cold.

“Not long, you will be alright,” Ben said. “Nobody suspects anything so far, and it’s been almost a week.”

That was true enough.

At first, it had been weird all the looks the men gave her, the scrutiny, and the fear of being discovered at any moment. But the men at Castle Black were busy with their own comings and goings proving to be much like the Old Bear said it would, _they’re either stupid or self centered so if you keep to yourself like they do there’s no reason to fear it_. And day after day it went, and no one had raised any suspicions. They would make japes at her expense and laugh and call her names, but in the end she was nothing but a boy that was too soft to be taken seriously.

“I’ll talk to Ned, maybe we can end this before you stay here much longer,” Ben said with the voice of Lord Stark not of her friend. There at the Wall, he was different, more serious. There he was Benjen the First Ranger. Dany could do nothing but nod and watch him leave again.

But he always came back, that was true enough too.

With Benjen gone her training moved from the woods to the courtyard. There, she wore black wool, boiled leather and mail and her sword didn’t have an edge. Dany could feel their eyes on her with every move, every step.

The other recruits weren’t that good, some weren’t good at all, but she was not that good either. She could only imagine how badly things would go without the lessons Benjen had given her.

A boy called Grenn was fighting another called Halder. Both were at least three years older than she was. Grenn was clumsy and slow, falling in the cold ground again and again. Halder was brutal, her right arm could testify to that, and he went all in with his attacks, to which Grenn never saw coming no matter how obvious it seemed.

Dany was sure she could have blocked that attack with a sidestroke.

Ser Alliser Thorne had a bored expression on his face. “Stop!” he said sharply making Halder stop his attack, Grenn was barely on his feet. “There’s only so much I can stomach in one morning.”

Dany walked to the armory before the master-at-arms could change his mind, and after changing out of her training clothes, she meant to walk to Maester Aemon’s rookery but Donal Noye told her the Lord Commander was waiting for her after their practice was done, so she went to the Old Bear’s tower instead.

“How was your first day at the yard? Do you think the boys suspect anything?” Mormont asked as soon as she stepped into his office.

“ _Corn, corn,_ ” the raven cried out from the window. The bird looked straight at her. “ _Corn,_ ” it stopped when saw her picking corn from the Lord Commander’s table. Flapping its wings the raven flied from the window to land on her shoulder.

“My balls were freezing off,” Dany said.

Mormont snorted. “I see you’re already picking their manners, or lack of.” He looked up from the letter before him to find the raven still on her shoulder. “You’re spoiling it, and it is already a damned thing.”

She smiled. “I think it is cleverer than most think.”

Lord Commander got up from his chair and the raven flew from her shoulder to land on his, asking for more corn. Mormont ignored it. “I hope the lessons with Benjen helps with whatever Thorne throws at you.”

“It has so far,” Dany replied. Something was troubling her for a few days and deciding there would be no better time she said, “How long will this work, my lord? For it is a matter of time, we know it. How long until the other boys grow a beard and I do not? How long until my breasts start to show under my wool? Until I bleed under my covers?”

The Old Bear seemed uncomfortable until he regained his composure.  _Good_ , thought Dany. If he could not face the truth then it would take less time than either of them anticipated before something went wrong.

“Do you think I have not thought of this?” he asked. “When Benjen brought you here and he and Aemon convinced me it could be done, do you think I have not thought of the consequences? Of what we would face?” Mormont sighed and just then, he seemed really old and tired, like the weight of everything under his command was pushing down on him. “I have a mind to send you to Bear Island, but I must wait for you are not my ward and Stark is not here.”

“Bear Island? With respect, my lord, how would it be any different than every other place they’ve hidden me so far?” Dany had heard of the island and House Mormont, but never thought she could end up there someday.

“My sister would have you in her keep. You would not have to hide anymore, child. They think you are dead so you should stay dead. Bear Island is a remote place far in the north, why would anyone search for you there? My sister and her daughters are warriors, they would take you and your sword and whatever you wish to take with you and you would be free of this place. I fear for what might happen to you here,” Mormont’s eyes locked onto hers and she knew he meant well, he truly wanted to keep her safe.

For a moment, Dany was at a loss of words.

She could picture it in her head so clearly, the island, the freedom, the absence of the constant fear. There was nothing she wanted more than a home. Nevertheless, a voice inside her head reminded that home was another island. _Dragonstone. Will I ever go there?_ Or perhaps, King’s Landing… But the seats that had belonged to her family would never be hers.

“I have received a letter from Lord Eddard, he asks about you,” Old Bear said, taking Dany out of her thoughts.

Lord Eddard Stark had saved her life in the day he accepted taking her north with him, taking her of the garrison of Dragonstone instead of letting the man take Daenerys to Robert Baratheon, who would surely have killed her. Her brother Viserys, he allowed to flee with Ser Willem Darry to Braavos and to never come back to Westeros. Even after so many years, Dany could not understand why he hadn’t let her go with her brother. Instead, kept her hidden from his friends and family and told lies about the truth of her birth. Lord Stark had never explained her anything.

From White Harbor to Winterfell, from Winterfell to the Lonely Hills and so on. One small village after another throughout her life. And now the Wall.

“Do you want to say or know anything? I might ask him,” Mormont was looking at her with knowing eyes.

There was a trap there that she would not fall into.

“No, my lord.”

Dany’s dislike for her living situation being important or not, she had to be strong. And as it always had been, she would accept her fate and make the best of it. That was what she told herself every day.

 _I am the blood of the dragon_.

“Very well,” Mormont nodded. “Take from the training what you can, as you already know. Maester Aemon and I have a mind to make you a steward so you’ll stay with him. Help him with the ravens as you seem to enjoy. And when Ben comes back, we’ll talk.”

All of them agreed it was for the best if she stayed with the Maester and Dany had no objections, she liked Maester Aemon and in the days that she had spent there, she had grown to be fond of his talks and the silence of the library.

But that night when she went to sleep, she dreamt that she was a ranger.

The snow was falling heavily from the sky and she walked in the Haunted Forest, her boots stepping in the soft snow as light as a feather. The world around her was all white. Her clothes weren’t black, but red, and when she saw her reflection in the icy lake, it was a dragon’s not hers. Red scales covered in snow. _I am the blood of the dragon, and the dragon does not fear_. The Dragon opened its mouth to set the ice on fire.

 

* * *

 

“I dreamt of dragons again last night,” Dany told Maester Aemon one afternoon while she helped to stock books in the library.

Over a month had passed since Benjen left for Winterfell.

A raven had arrived the day before with word of him coming back but it would take another fortnight until he was finally at Castle Black, if the roads were kind. The letter also told of how Tyrion Lannister, the Queen’s own brother, was coming with him to see the Wall. Lord Commander Mormont had sat with Dany and Maester Aemon late at night to talk about how to best deal with the upcoming visitor, to which the Maester had simply said, _the boy will do what he has been doing so far, he will be a boy in training to join the Night’s Watch_.

She could not be conspicuous by its absence.

“Was it the red one?” Maester Aemon asked.

“No, white,” Dany’s voice was full of the wonder she had felt in the dream. “It was very beautiful and flying atop the Wall.”

In the dream she was neither the dragon nor its rider, but instead watched it flying far in the sky. She was standing at the top of the Wall, overlooking the world.

“Queen Alysanne flew her dragon here at the Wall once,” the Maester’s voice was full of the fondness it possessed whenever they talked about dragons. “ _Silverwing_ was its name, but it was green not silver. Some believe it laid eggs here at the Wall, but none were ever found so I suppose we’ll never know the truth of it.”

Dany paused with a book in hand, she was standing at the top of the ladder and looked down on the Maester sitting in a chair by the long table with piles of books in front of him.

Maester Aemon was an ancient man, possibly over a hundred years old, bald, blind and wrinkled. Always spoke with a soft and low voice. Dany thought he smelled of old books and many years, and when she had asked about his name, the Maester had only chuckled and said that many boys in Westeros were named after the Dragonknight.

“Is it possible, though?” Dany asked then, even the slight possibility that she could ever find a dragon egg, there at the end of the world, sent a wave of excitement through her body.

The Maester gave her a gentle smile. “Hidden treasures and possibilities… There are secrets thousands of years old in this Wall, but if we are to discover them, only time will tell.”

Dany put the book on the shelf and climbed down the ladder. The library was empty except for them, the silence and the fire that was almost dying in the hearth behind them. She sat in the bench beside the table and the piles of books stood between her and Maester Aemon.

“Tell me of Silverwing, please,” Dany asked picking another book and taking the dust on it with a cloth. She couldn’t see the Maester but she could hear the smile on his voice.

“Silverwing was one of the four surviving dragons of the Dance of the Dragons, but it was riderless and wild with grief. For Silverwing was mated with _Vermithor_ , that had died at the Second Tumbleton. Silverwing died in the wild, killing as it felt like. There were only two riders, Queen Alysanne Targaryen and Ulf the White,” Maester Aemon sighed. “How different one rider from another they were.”

“The Bronze Fury,” Dany got up to climb the ladder once again, “I thought it had no other rider after King Jaehaerys.”

“Vermithor bended its neck to Hugh Hammer, a bastard from Dragonstone, and allowed him to ride. Those bastards with some dragon blood in them were called dragonseeds. Ulf and Hugh, the two betrayers.”

Dany placed the book in the shelf, “In my dreams I am the rider or the dragon or watching it fly.” The white dragon seemed to shine under the moonlight. A contrast against the dark sky.

“Have you gone to the top of the Wall, child?” his voice cut through the silence. “Stood at the edge and looked upon the world?”

“Not yet,” Dany answered.

“You should… You should,” the Maester said but did not elaborate.

And so that night instead of going back to her room in old Flint Barracks, she went to the iron cage that would take her up the Wall. The cage seemed to take forever to climb and below her, Castle Black stood empty and crumbling.

At the top, the wind swirled fiercely and the cold burned her cheeks. It was cold enough for Dany to doubt her decision of being there in the first place. She walked west in the white road for what it seemed like half an hour. When a huge catapult came upon her, Dany stopped, suddenly aware that she was meant to go nowhere and weariness took over. Her gloved fingers touched the wood covered in ice, and she wondered how long has it been since it was used for the last time. _Ruins and abandoned keeps, empty towers and empty vows_.

And there she stood, at the end of all things.

When Dany stepped closer to the edge, she could see the world stretching before her. The North was bathed in moonlight and snow. The hills and lakes, the lights of Mole’s Town faint and small… Everything seemed smaller up there.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Closing her eyes the dream came back, and in the gushing of the wind the white dragon was flying in the dark night sky.

 _Hidden treasures and possibilities_. Standing there and looking down upon the world, it was easier to believe.

 

* * *

 

“Pony!” someone yelled after her.

It was either pony or pigtail, or lady love. Ser Alliser was fond of calling her lady love because she was “soft and pretty as a girl” and her arm was still hurting from the last time she had fought with Halder, but that was beside the point. Dany took proud in getting better than the other recruits, giving as hard as she got. They were calling her pony for her little ponytail. Her hair had been growing fast, and while the silver has never shown before it was dyed again, it was almost at her shoulders now so she had it tied at the back with a leather stripe. Maester Aemon said she should cut, but Dany missed her long hair so much that she kept saying that soon she would do it and not actually doing it at all.

The boy calling after her was a new one, Pypar. Everyone called him Pyp and he claimed he could tell where every person he met was from. _You are not from Dorne, you do not have their accent or skin_ and Dany had rolled her eyes and told him her mother had laid with a man from House Dayne, and still, the boy did not relented so she left for the armory to change out of icy sweat clothes paying him no mind.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Pyp finally caught up with her fast strides.

“To get away from your ugly face,” she replied and Pyp laughed because he thought most things were funny.

It had been easy to fall into the banter with the boys, japes and crude words were mostly it and Dany could blend in easily whenever she talked like it was supposed they would.

“I’ve heard talk of the Queen’s brother coming to the Wall,” Pyp told her when they got into the armory. He was small with black hair and very large ears. “The Imp!”

His excitement over Tyrion Lannister was not shared by Dany.

“’Course you would hear that, you can hear anything with those ears,” said Grenn, who had come in after them.

Dany ignored them while changing off her woolens to don the black roughspun they used every day. She was conscious of her form, as it always was whenever she took off layers of clothing in front of others. But since her flowering, there could be no pretending her breasts were not growing, not much but enough to notice even if she always left one layer to cover herself, so she stayed with her back to the boys and made quick work of it.

“It is so! Dwarf cocks have magical powers and in the slaver cities in Essos it’s worth lots of gold,” Grenn was saying while everyone else laughed.

“That’s stupid, just like you!” Dany heard Pyp say as she walked out of the armory.

Every day was the same and the one change was that the days were getting colder. There was no escaping the cold, it crept up the skin and hugged her like a lover might. Dany wondered if she would ever feel warm again.

Crossing the courtyard to the common hall, she stopped when noticed the commotion and saw that a party of eight men had arrived.

Benjen Stark was getting down of his horse and smiling at something someone had said. And seeing him again, Dany felt just how much she had missed him and his kind words, his concern for her and the hint of a smile that oft could be seen in his eyes. Behind him came Tyrion Lannister and two men dressed in Lannister red. A black brother Dany didn’t know and two boys that could only be new recruits, new horses and ravens. And in the back of the group, standing by another boy was a white wolf. But the wolf seemed different to her than common wolves. His fur was all white and his eyes were red, it met Dany’s stare and for a moment she felt unsettled, but not frightened.

As white as the dragon of her dream, she realized.

The boy was getting down of his horse, sullen face and dark brown hair. He had a lean build and with a gloved hand, patted the wolf’s head. There was something different about him from the other two boys. While the others seemed nothing but peasants, he stood like a highborn.

Later when they were all settled and everyone was back to their own business, Benjen would come to her to ask how she was and he would tell her that the wolf was a direwolf and it was going to get bigger. And he would tell her of his nephew, Jon Snow, a boy of fourteen. Ned Stark’s bastard.

There would be no introductions between her and anyone else, because at Castle Black she was only a bastard boy and Benjen was First Ranger and special attentions would do no good. Dany knew that, it had been like that since the first day at the Wall.

But the boy would have to learn, she realized when heard him talking with his uncle the next morning. She then thought of words Maester Aemon had said to her a while ago, _either we wish for it or not, life happens as it will_.

Jon Snow wished for different things.

 _As I do_ , Dany thought sadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I've been thinking about for a while and had to write and share before I change my mind. This is a fun story for all my Targaryen feelings, [Dany as a warrior](http://kittrose.tumblr.com/post/165154591767/daenerys-and-drogon) and Jon/Dany feelings. I hope you find it as much fun as I do and share your thoughts :)
> 
> [Danny Flint](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Danny_Flint)  
> [Illyrio Mopatis](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Illyrio_Mopatis)  
> [Donal Noye](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Donal_Noye)  
> [Grenn](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Grenn), [Halder](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Halder) and [Pyp](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Pypar)  
> [Ser Willem Darry](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Willem_Darry)  
> [Queen Alysanne Targaryen](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Alysanne_Targaryen)  
> [Aemon the Dragonknight](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Aemon_Targaryen_\(son_of_Viserys_II\))  
> [Silverwing](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Silverwing) and [Vermithor](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Vermithor)  
> [Second Tumbleton](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Second_Battle_of_Tumbleton)  
> [King Jaehaerys I Targaryen](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Jaehaerys_I_Targaryen)  
> [Ulf the White](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Ulf_White) and [Hugh Hammer](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Hugh_Hammer)  
> [dragonseeds](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dragonseed)


	2. Chapter 2

The frosty morning air was a reminder of the words she had heard the Lord Commander say to Maester Aemon a couple of days before,  _can you feel_   _how_   _is getting colder? Darkness is coming. I can feel in these old bones of mine_. She wasn’t sure what he meant by darkness coming, but she agreed about the cold.

Dany could feel sweat drying in her body like drops of icy water. Her right arm was hurting with the weight of the sword, her breaths were coming in and out short and she had to remind herself to keep it steady, to slow it down. To regain the control.

Jon Snow was standing in front of her, sword in hand, waiting for the attack.

Dany could taste blood on her tongue, from the time his mailed forearm had slammed on her chest and she had fallen in the ground biting hard to stop from crying out in pain. Everyone already thought of her as a soft maiden, she could not let them know just how much truth there was to that. So Dany did not complain nor cried, only got up to fight again. Her body screamed its protest with each move she made.

The other recruits were gathered around, watching with interest and mirth in their eyes. Dany could hear their mocking even before it was uttered out loud. Across the yard, Benjen watched with a strange haunted expression and if it was for guilt over their last conversation or something else, Dany did not know.

Benjen had said with an apologetic tone in his voice, “The King thinks you are dead and if you go to Bear Island on your own, what would prevent you of leaving? Of someone figuring it out? If Robert finds out do you think he will have you killed, exiled to Essos or he will give you a pardon?”

Dany had wondered then just what she should be pardoned for… It was Robert Baratheon who had raised rebellion against his king.

Would she die poisoned by the king’s command like her brother Viserys? Should she die for the simple crime of existing? For a moment she had wanted to mourn the lost possibility of Bear Island and asked herself what the Old Bear would have to say to that, she was growing fond of the Lord Commander.  _They think you are dead so you should stay dead_ , he had said to her but offered a way out, a chance of a normal life… But be it for protection or not, in the end, she was nothing but a prisoner.

Jon flexed his fingers, gripping the sword tighter and watching her with a wary look. Training with Jon Snow was never simple training, and if their swords had edges she and the other recruits would be covered in cuts and even more bruises than they could count.

“You wanted to go,” Benjen had noted looking at her.

Dany had shrugged and avoided meeting his eyes, “What difference there is, if I am buried in snow or buried in sand?” And the moment the words left her lips, he took it as a blow.

Benjen had taken care of Dany since she was little, had visited her as many times as possible before he became First Ranger, played with her and told her stories that always had a hero that she used to imagine as a tall man with silver hair. Even in the stories and fantasies of her childhood the hero was a dragon. But as she grew older the lesson was learned.

There was no such thing as heroes anymore.

Dany pressed forward, but her heart wasn’t on it and all of Ben’s lessons forgotten, so when she raised the sword, Jon went underneath it with a sweeping blow against the back of her left leg. She fell again and someone in the crowd sniggered.

 _I am so tired_ , she wanted to say. There was a sadness in her voice that she tried to keep inside most of the time, but lately it was leaking out of her in the afternoons spent with Maester Aemon, in the cold nights spent in bed afraid of closing her eyes, in the silence of the cold that kept company to her, in getting up in the mornings and training and fighting till exhaustion. Wondering how badly Ser Alliser would mock if she didn't get up and reassuring herself that she would never find out, Dany got up one more time.

And just then, something flashed in Jon's eyes. The curious thing was that she was not the only trying to prove something, for Jon seemed to be raging a war against himself and everyone else. Deciding that he wanted to end it, Jon came after her.

In his footwork, she recognized his uncle’s.

He pressed the attack and Dany deflected his assaults as well as she could. Jon was good, definitely the best of them and he was aware of that, which was why everyone else didn’t like him. Jon could beat them easily and as many times as needed, he had trained at arms since he was a little boy and had yet to see how the others felt about that.  _Lord Snow_ they were calling him, another of Ser Alliser’s mockery. And the more he hated the moniker, the more it was used against him.

“Now, Lord Snow, don’t go too hard on your _lady love_ ,” Ser Alliser said, loudly for everyone in the yard to hear.

The other boys laughed, causing Jon to snap. He deflected her sideswing and knocked the sword out of her fingers with a slash on her wrist that hurt, a lot. Yet, she did not cry out. He was angry, but so was she. And neither was angry at the other. Nor were they really angry, just sad and lonely. Dany could recognize that on him, and sometimes wondered if he could recognize it on her as well. But if he did, she supposed she would never know.

Jon Snow looked at her with the same contempt he looked at every _boy_ there and his only friend was his direwolf, Ghost.

And it was not that Dany cared about him or what he thought of her. But she could not help that feeling, when she saw him walking around brooding and miserable, when he sat at the farthest table to eat without uttering a single word to those around him, when Benjen Stark left him alone once again, when reality was a hard truth to face day after day… It was almost like looking at a mirror, and when it was possible to see so much of yourself in someone else, that mirror could hurt.

Ser Alliser dismissed the class with his most condescending tone and Jon walked to the armory without so much as a glance behind him. Dany sat up in the cold ground, and Pyp offered a hand to help her up. She took it with her left one.

“You should see the Maester if it hurts too much,” he said noticing it. “Lord Snow sure is a piece of work.”

“’s alright,” Dany replied because she didn’t felt like arguing with him, or talking at all for the matter.

“He thinks he is better than us,” Pyp said, either not realizing she didn’t want to talk or simply ignoring it. “He is a bastard and he acts like a…”

Picking up the sword, Dany started to walk to the armory leaving Pyp and his talking behind. He followed her, but stayed quiet.

At first Pyp had been nothing but an annoying boy that talked constantly and thought he knew better than he actually did, but as time went she had started to enjoy his japes and saw on him the possibility of a friend. Lord Commander had advised against getting close to the people there, but the thought of remaining alone made Dany feel sadder than she could admit to anyone.

She had been alone for too long.

Unbidden, her thoughts went to Jon and the solitude he wore as an armor, and Dany wondered how long before the weight of it wearied him down as well.

 

* * *

 

Tyrion Lannister had a jape and a half for everything and everyone. Most could not see through his mocking tones or deprecating sense of humor and would laugh along never realizing that they were laughing at their own expense.

 _Flatterers and fools_ , Dany thought one day when they were at the common hall having their midday meal. Since his arrival, Dany had avoided the man as much as she could. And it was easy, Pony Sand was no one of importance. But once in a while she would feel his mismatched eyes looking at her from afar, and whenever that happened she would keep walking pretending her heart was not beating like a hammer in her chest. Tyrion Lannister had too much time at his hand to just sit around and observe.

When she had told about it to Benjen, he had only told her to stay out of his sight like that was something that could be done at all times.

“He is a cunning man and smart, the consequences of him finding out… Take care, alright?” Benjen had said, before leaving the next morning leading half a dozen men in a ranging beyond the Wall.

Laugher reached her ears and Dany concentrated on the steam rising from her bowl of mutton stew. They ate mutton stew almost every meal. She had resumed eating again after a moment, when someone sat in front of her at the other side of the table. Dany looked up expecting Pyp and found Tyrion Lannister’s eyes staring at hers.

“By all means, continue,” he said gesturing to her bowl. “I simply want to enjoy a different company today. If you do not mind, of course.” He took a bite of the piece of bread he had in hand.

“Not at all, m’lord,” somewhere a voice was screaming at her to run. Dany looked down at her stew and went back to eating it.

“Onion and carrot, a change from the turnip of yesterday and the days before,” Tyrion said chuckling and Dany could not laugh, nor did she want to. She knew he had eaten crabs the other day with the Lord Commander and the rest of the high officers.

A fortnight had passed since her talk with Benjen and ever since, Tyrion’s eyes had followed her around despite her being careful. And though most men seemed too stupid to see through the Imp, she was not. Dany pondered the consequences of her next steps before looking back at him again.

Tyrion looked around them before saying in a lowered voice, “Does anyone know? What you are, that is.”

 _A girl or a Targaryen?_ she wanted to ask but held her tongue.

For days and days, Dany had done just that whenever she heard the men talking about the Lannisters or her family. When Tyrion talked of his brother, Jaime, it was with a fondness strange to her, for Jaime Lannister had killed her father. Some say he had slit the king’s throat, some say he had trusted his golden sword behind the king’s back. Whenever Dany saw the Lannister guards walking around Castle Black, she would think of how many may have walked the streets of King’s Landing during its sack. Whenever Tyrion talked of his lord father, she’d think about her niece and nephew wrapped in crimson cloaks.

Lord Eddard Stark had such a deep distaste and mistrust for the Lannisters that in the few times it had came up between them, it was plain to see it on his face.

“No, I suppose they don’t or you would not be here.” Tyrion was still talking. It seemed to Dany that he was incredibly fond of his own voice.

There was a fisherman that lived along the shores of Blazewater Bay that once told Dany a tale about the Mad King’s fits of hysterical laughter during the tourney at Harrenhal. He had japed and talked about the king’s appearance, his unwashed hair and beard and the glint of madness in his eyes. That had been the most anyone had ever told Dany about her father. Whenever someone talked about the Targaryens, she could do nothing but listen in silence.

Of Queen Rhaella she knew naught. Her mother was only a ghost in her dreams, sad smile in a shadow without its face.

Dany’s dreams were filled with shifting shadows. Rhaegar floating on a red river, Viserys walking in desert streets with a golden crown in his hand… Once, she dreamt of snow and ashes and the shadow of someone she did not know. They were haunting her, the past and the present and the lost future. And when she was awake, Dany would think of them. Daughter of dragons, sister of dragons and now… _The last one_. Most days she would hold the weight and walk, but in some other days it would feel like she could barely stand on her own. And in that moment, looking at Tyrion Lannister’s smile and his mismatched eyes, she could feel their eyes on her. Somewhere… Some _when_ , she told herself. _The dragon feeds on lion and sheep alike_.

“How long do you believe this blue hair and ragged clothes will keep them of finding out you are a girl?” Tyrion asked. “And, I suspect, a pretty one at that.”

Dany held his gaze, “For as long as you do not tell them, m’lord.”

Tyrion laughed, and the men in other tables around looked at them wondering what the bastard boy said that could have been funny. Dany joined because she did not want them to think he was laughing at her, but with her.

“Then, they won’t know it,” he said when their laughing ceased, and every one of Dany’s suspicions came at once. He must have seen that because he added, “I would gain nothing from it, _boy_ , and what Lannister would I be if I did not think of the benefits in a situation, or in this particular case, the lack of one?”

 _When we entered the city, the lion of Lannister flew from its ramparts_ , Lord Stark had once said to her and the image had been clouding Dany’s eyelids ever since.

“Mayhaps one day I will repay you in kind,” Dany said to Tyrion.

“A favor for another, I quite like that.”

They were both finishing their meals in companionable awkward silence when Jon Snow walked into the common hall marching straight at them. When he lifted Tyrion from the bench and spun him around in a circle, Dany could do nothing but watch, astonished and amused.

“Bran is going to live!” Jon said in what had to be the happiest voice anyone there had ever heard coming from him. “Here, read it,” he told Tyrion, thrusting a piece of paper on the man’s hands.

Dany felt a warmness spreading over her body. Bran was one of Lord Eddard's sons. Benjen had been worried about the boy not waking up, but he was going to live after all. She wondered when Benjen would return to hear of this news.

Jon Snow was a different person when he smiled; it changed his sullen face and brightened his grey eyes. Not for the first time, Dany was struck with how handsome he was.

Jon looked down on her still sitting and smiled at her. “I’m sorry about hurting your wrist that day. My brother Robb used the same move one me once, but with a wooden sword and it hurt like seven hells. Yours must have been worse, and if you want, I can show you how to defend that.”

For a moment she was at a loss of words, but before she could even think of saying yes, Ser Alliser talked first. “Look at that, Lord Snow wants to take my place.” He was standing a few tables over and looking at Jon with a disgusted expression the recruits were familiar with. “I’d have an easier time teaching a wolf to juggle than you will in training this little maiden.”

Jon stood his ground, as he very often did. “I’ll take that wager, Ser Alliser. I’d love to see Ghost juggle.”

There was an immediate tension in the room. The other boys looked at Jon as if they were seeing him for the first time. Tyrion was the first to laugh and Dany followed him. She looked at Jon smiling at everyone around him, the other boys laughing as well, and Ser Alliser’s darkened face.

It seemed things were going to change.

 

* * *

 

The Haunted Forest and all the lands beyond the Wall did not looked so frightening in the morning light.

 _Ben is out there somewhere_. When Benjen left on the ranging, Dany had said to herself that it would not take long for his return, but that had been weeks ago and he had yet to come back. Day after day she waited and the high officers pretended there was nothing to worry about, but Dany could see that they did. No one wanted to talk of Benjen Stark missing but she knew it to be true. And if the First Ranger was gone, who they could send to search for him?

Dany stood at the top of the Wall with a spear taller than she was by her side, sword on its sheath and a black and silver warhorn across her chest.

One blast, rangers returning. Two blasts, wildlings attacking. Three blasts had not been heard in thousands of years.

In the first time she had been given guard duty, she thought hopefully and naively that maybe she would be the one to blow the horn for Benjen’s return, but it hasn’t happened so far and as the days went by she started to lose hope.

Hugging her cloak closer, Dany looked at the sun rising a last time and started to walk back to the old wooden shack to wait for the recruit that would replace her, as she had replaced Jon hours before when the night was still dark and stars shinned in the sky.

Since that day at the common hall, Jon had been given guard duty almost every night. Ser Alliser had hopes that Jon would fail the drills if he lost hours of sleep and so far there was nothing but disappointment for the old knight, for Jon had not a once failed. And the first time had been the one he had shared with Dany. She remembered it very clearly.

It was the first morning shift and the sun was rising in the horizon, the air was bitterly cold in their faces keeping the sleep away. Once they got out of the cage, Ghost had walked around sniffing the ice and the wooden shack’s door before looking back at his master. Jon was closing the cage gate behind them and looking like he was feeling colder than ever. Dany had picked up the warhorn and offered the iron spear to Jon. They walked side by side in silence with Ghost trailing after them. She hadn’t known until that moment but Jon had never been at the top of the Wall before, for whatever reasons he had. That morning he had walked over to the edge and looked down upon the world stretching before them. The first rays of the sun were casting the lands in a light mist. The black cloak Jon was wearing was beating wildly with the wind, a contrast against the white of the world around them. If he was afraid of the ruthless wind or the height, he did not show.

Dany had observed quietly with Ghost standing by her side. And when her curiosity got the best of her, she gingerly stepped closer to Jon to see the expression on his face, and when she did, her breath caught on her throat.

Jon Snow’s grey eyes were full of wonder.

She had wanted to smile then because she remembered that feeling, the first time she had seen the world from the top of its edge. The haunting feeling of beauty that took her breath away and made her think of how small she really was and how much of the world she didn’t knew. But most of all, standing at the top of the Wall could make one believe that magic existed after all.

It was all there, plain on Jon’s face.

For a reason Dany did not understand, she wanted to tell him then about her dreams and the dragons flying atop the Wall, about how she felt exactly like that when she saw it for the first time, about wanting to blow the horn for Benjen’s return, about the beauty of the solitude of that place that somehow made her feel all the more alone, about feeling like there was something bigger than them all waiting _just there_ … But in truth that was Daenerys Targaryen’s wishes, and to Jon she was but a boy. A nobody serving at the Night’s Watch. Even if she told him everything without mentioning who she was, what would he make of it?

When a little smile had played on his lips, she looked away and started to walk, leaving Jon and Ghost behind.

“Pony?” Jon called after her.

Dany had cut her hair once again, but the nickname had stuck nonetheless. “Yes?” She turned back to look at him.

Ghost’s red eyes seemed to see right through her, and sometimes it was frightening how much the direwolf could sense from someone.

“We have to stay together, have we not?” Jon asked.

Since that day at the common hall, Jon was friendlier towards her and the other boys and was fast becoming a dear friend to them and a leader, not that everyone could see that. Dany could, she had seen how the other boys listened to Jon, followed his steps. Dany kept her distance of him as well as the others, she could not risk it. Her relationship with them remained one of detached camaraderie. Sometimes though, it was harder than it should be.

For there was still a sense of loneliness in Jon Snow that didn’t seem to go away. As if he lacked the sense of belonging to that place that the others felt. Dany could understand that all too well, and it made it hard to pretend when she was alone with him like that. _Do you see the reflections as well, Jon? Do you feel as I do?_

“That’s what the watch commander told me, to follow you. At least in this first time.” There was uncertainty in his voice and she knew it was her fault because she shouldn’t act so weird around anyone but herself.

“Of course,” Dany made herself nod. “We stay together.”

But that had been days and days ago, and now she walked the white road alone. In the wooden shack, she found Halder reporting for guard duty and looking unhappy about it. When she reached the ground, Castle Black was already awake and moving. Nothing was out of the ordinary. The other recruits were doing their morning drills, Donal Noye was working on the armory, Ser Jaremy Rykker was talking with the Lord Commander in hushed tones, Tyrion Lannister was surrounded by a group of laughing men. And no one knew.

It was her fourteenth nameday.

“Sand!” Ser Alliser called when he saw her crossing the yard to the common hall to break her fast. “Get your ass over to the armory, now!”

The day went by in a flash before her eyes, much like the ones before, and when she finally walked inside her chamber at the end of it, Dany felt a wave of despair for the first time in a while. She closed the door and leaned against it. Her body was sore from training and the lack of sleep of that night was catching up to her. The cold of the room hugged her in the dark, she had forgotten to start a fire before dinner. Most of all, she felt lost. _I am the blood of the dragon_ , but the words lacked strength and Dany was alone and it was cold and it hurt too much, she could barely breathe. Sobs threatened to spill out of her mouth, so she chocked it back with her hands and her body trembled with the effort of keeping quiet. Dany wondered how far she could go before it would break her.

Someone knocked on the door after what could have been hours. Dried tears stained her cheeks.

“Sand! The Maester wants to see you.” It was Chett’s voice and he said nothing else before Dany heard his footsteps echoing in the hall as he walked away.

Maester Aemon’s apartments stayed at a wooden keep below the rookery. Once she got there, Chett asked her to wait in the library and start a fire so she picked up logs and went to the hearth. The fire was crackling softly by the time the Maester arrived. Chett placed a square chest on the long table and then helped Maester Aemon to sit in the chair that Dany had placed by the warmth of the fire. The long chain the Maester wore around his neck chanted in the rhythm of the flames.

Maester Aemon gestured for Dany to sit with him and so she did, without knowing why she was there at all.

“Chett, you may leave us.” The steward looked at her suspiciously, as if that was her doing, and walked out of the library. “That is a gift for you,” Maester Aemon pointed at the chest on the table.

Dany got up and opened the chest to reveal inside two eggs made of stone. She picked one up to feel the weight of it, it was heavy and it looked as though it was made of gold and silver with veins of fire running through it. The second was white with green swirls. It was the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Between her hands, the stone seemed strangely warm.

“When a Targaryen was born, the tradition was to place an egg in their cradle. And this went on even after the last dragon was gone, so my brothers and I each had a dragon egg. But after everything that happened in my life, the eggs became nothing but stones forgotten in the dust of time,” the Maester was saying.

Dany looked at him not quite believing what she had heard. “My lord?” Sputtered out of her mouth in a small voice.

“When Benjen Stark asked the Lord Commander for help to keep you here, it was my plea that made you stay. Lord Mormont wanted no part of it, but I convinced him. I said _she is all I have left_. And so I thought that you should have them.” The Maester had a faraway look, as if he was there with her and somewhere else at the same time. “I remember… Like a dream that keeps coming back. When I close my eyes I see them. Ghosts… And memories. I see their faces, hear their voices, _the red and the black_ …” In the old Maester’s lips a sad toothless smile told the truth. “The past, my child, is a prison.”

Dany looked at the Maester but no words came and tears were filling her eyes again. Inside, her shattered heart was mending its pieces. All that time, all those days and a part of her always knew. Didn’t it? _I dream of dragons as well, I feel their hot breath. I see wings flying above the snow_ , he had told her once.

And now, “I dream of days and choices long gone.” Maester Aemon held his frail hand out to her and Dany took it without hesitation. “Three times I was tested and the last was the one that hurt the most. The ruin of my house, the death of my kin… And yet, mercy was showed to me and the gods brought me _you_.” His other hand cradled her face. “Daenerys _Targaryen_ … The hope I was waiting for.”

She leaned into his touch while tears streamed down her face. _The last ones_.

“You’re still here, we both are,” Dany said, desperately trying to make him understand that they were together and that was all that mattered to her. “ _We_ are the blood of the dragon.”

With the grief of years and haunted memories, Aemon Targaryen said, “No more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot express how much it means to me the positive response to the first chapter, and I hope you enjoyed this one as well. I took the liberty of switching the eggs because Aemon's egg has no description and I need to work with something.
> 
> [Blazewater Bay](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Blazewater_Bay)  
> [Tourney at Harrenhal](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Tourney_at_Harrenhal)  
> [Sack of King's Landing](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Sack_of_King%27s_Landing)  
> [Jaremy Rykker](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Jaremy_Rykker)  
> [Chett](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Chett)  
> Aerion's and Aegon's dragon eggs [described here](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dragon_egg)


	3. Chapter 3

The egg that many years before had belonged to King Aegon V Targaryen was the white and green one.

After the king’s death, it was his wish that the egg would be sent to his elder brother, Aemon, serving at the Night’s Watch since youth. Maester Aemon spoke of his brother fondly and often, but to him the king was a boy he simply called Egg.

The gold and silver one had belonged to Aemon himself, and now both eggs were Dany’s.

At night before sleeping, she would hold one egg and brace it to her body, in between her breasts. Once, Dany could swear she felt a beat inside the stone in sync with the beats of her own heart. It gave her a strange sense of strength. She treasured those eggs more than any other possession, few as they were. When her fingers traced the veins of fire in the gold one, it seemed to glow as real flames. _Alive_. In her dreams and, more often than not, imagination, the dragon was the most beautiful to ever exist. Gold scales shining against the light.

Maester Aemon had chuckled fondly when she told him that. “As beautiful as _Sunfyre_.” He told her about the golden dragon that were believed to have been the most beautiful to fly over Westeros’ skies. “Aegon II’s dragon was magnificent, and ruined. Even the most beautiful are torn apart by war.”

For all they talked about dragons and eggs, the Maester did not believe it could be hatched and that the eggs were nothing but stones. It took more than fire to hatch an egg, and magic had left the world when the last dragon had uttered its last breath.

“When we were children, Egg and I pretended our eggs would hatch someday. There’s a prophecy about the return of the dragons that led us to such pretense. But so many years have gone by and the dragons are still gone. And our eggs are now yours.”

Dany knew it was foolish to hold any hope but it was not such an easy thing to ignore her dreams, _the white dragon had been flying atop the Wall_. Prophecy or not, it was her feeling that mattered. And so, before going to bed, she would place the eggs in the midst of the fire letting it burn throughout the night. In the mornings before going to the yard to train, she would place the eggs back in its chest and hid it under the small bed.

Hope was a dangerous feeling but Dany thought it better than despair.

In a particular warm and ordinary morning, Dany was in the armory watching Jon teach Dareon a proper sidestroke while pondering over how to provide fire to the eggs during the whole day without raising any suspicions, when she heard someone say, “They told me I was to come here… for… for training.” Searching around for the voice, she beheld the fattest boy she had ever seen standing in the armory’s door looking nervous and sweaty under his embroidered surcoat.

Pyp, that stood closer to Dany, observed, “A southron lordling. Most like near Highgarden.”

Dareon and Jon had stopped and now looked at the arrival through the lifted visors of their helms. All the other recruits stopped to look as well.

When Ser Alliser laid his eyes upon his new charge, everyone knew there was a bloodbath coming. After putting on scraps of armor and leather that Noye had managed to make it barely fit, Ser Piggy stood in the middle of the yard ready to fight his opponent and when Ser Alliser called out Halder, Dany saw Jon wince.

“This will be uglier than a whore’s ass,” Pyp muttered, and it was.

Less than a minute into the fight the fat boy was lying on the ground, bloodied and shaking. “I yield! Please! No more, I yield!”

Some of the boys started to laugh.

Ser Alliser was having none of it, taunting Halder to hit harder with the flat of the blade until the fat boy got up on his feet. “You can hit him harder than that,” Ser Alliser said, and Dany felt bile rising in her mouth as she watched Halder bring down the sword with both hands. Hard enough to slip the leather and the new boy screeched in pain.

Dany could not look away no matter how much she wanted and a part of her supposed she should, for violence was not something to be considered entertaining. There was a voice telling her to move, to help, to stop it. The heavy burden that came with hiding herself crushed her consciousness as they watched the boy struggle to rise only to fall heavily again. All her life spent ignoring and being ignored and someday she was bound to snap.

Jon took a step forward and Pyp laid a mailed hand on his arm, “Jon, _no_ ,” the small boy whispered with an anxious glance at Dany, asking for help. But all she did was shrug. For all she knew, someone should put an end to it.

“Ser Piggy is grasping the notion,” Ser Alliser observed. “Again.”

Halder lifted the sword for another blow.

Rast urged laughing, “Cut us off a ham!”

Dany took an involuntary step forward at the same time Jon shook off Pyp’s hand.

“Halder, _enough_!” Jon said, making Halder stop and look at Ser Alliser.

Whatever words were exchanged between them, Dany did not hear. She took the last steps needed and knelt beside the boy, gently pressing her hand to his shoulder. The boy’s whimpering of pain pierced through her. Before she could say or do anything, Jon knelt as well. Her eyes met his grey ones and found the fierceness she felt reflected back at her.

Ser Alliser’s hard eyes were fixed on them while they helped the boy to his feet, “Show me your steel, Lord Snow.”

And to Dany’s amazement, Jon drew his longsword.

He had always defied the master-at- arms, but drawing steel was crossing a point they all knew there would be no return from. Blood rushed to her ears and Dany felt her right hand tightening at the sword’s hilt in her hip, and when she drew it out of its scabbard, Jon gave her a look nodding with gratitude.

“The Bastard and his lady love wish to protect Ser Piggy, so we shall make an exercise of it. Rat, Pimple, help our Stone Head here. It shall be sufficient to make Lady Ham squeal.” And with that, Rast and Albett joined Halder.

Before either Jon or Dany could utter a single word, Pyp joined them, “Three against three makes for better sport.” And so he dropped his visor and slid out his sword.

Dany felt a rush of anticipation.

“Stay behind me,” Jon said to the fat boy and to Dany he said nothing, for he hoped she could stand her own.

Jon had been training her himself, lessons that echoed the same care Benjen had. _You don’t want to lose your balance so your feet should be farther apart. That’s good_. She remembered the smile Ben had when she had landed the first blow as vividly as if had happened just the day before.

“Why are you waiting?” Ser Alliser’s voice was soft and calm, deceptively so. He had directed the question to Halder, but it was Jon who moved first.

In the silence of the yard, the clash of steel rang loudly.

Dany followed not a beat later. Rast raised his sword, blocking her attack just in time. She pressed forward keeping the other boy on his heels. Left, right, left, right with sure steps. _You’re fierce_ _and y_ _ou have a great strength in you._ He was older than she was by three years and stronger, she could not give him any advantage. _Pivot as you deliver, get all the weight behind the blade_. Dany swirled to his left avoiding the sword and Rast deflected her counterstroke before coming after her again with vicious intent, and in a moment, he had Dany pinning her back against Pyp’s. The small boy looked over his shoulder at her before pressing against his own foe. She delved to deflect and brought the sword up to block another blow, one aimed at her head, and the shock of the impact of steel cursed through her arms and Dany gritted her teeth to hold ground. When Rast gave a nasty hit against her left ribs, it knocked the air out of her lungs. Dany was trying to breathe again and raise the sword at the same time when Jon come behind Rast and rang the raper’s helm like a bell. As Rast went reeling, Dany took the opportunity to slid under his guard and knock him down.

After all three opponents had yielded and the fight was over, Ser Alliser looked at them all with disgust before dismissing everyone. “The mummer’s farce has gone long enough for today.” He walked away without giving them a second glance.

While the other recruits talked among themselves, Dany looked at the fat boy standing in the middle of them. Blood matted his hair and his eyes wide with fear met hers, and she couldn't help but nod to him with a little smile at the corners of her lips. He nodded back with gratitude and started to walk towards Jon, and it was then that Dany noticed Jon trying unsuccessfully to remove his helm but was clearly in pain while doing so, his teeth gritted.

Without hesitation she stepped closer to him.

“Here, let me,” Dany said to Jon, unfastening the helm from the gorget and lifting it off gently. The yard was emptying around them, only the recruits remained. When Jon looked at her after the helm was off, she saw something in his eyes that she had never seen before. There in a second, gone the next. “Did he hurt you?” She should not have asked and she should not care. There was a knot in her stomach that she should not want to understand.

“I’ve been bruised before.” Jon touched his shoulder and winced, he looked then at the other boy and she did the same.

The new boy was Samwell Tarly from Horn Hill. His father was Lord Randyll, bannerman to the Tyrells of Highgarden. Pyp had been right after all.

When other boys gathered around them, she decided it would be best to leave them to it, walking to the armory to rid herself of the garment and get to her other duties. That afternoon she was to assist the Maester with his birds and when they started to talk of dragons, all thoughts of grey eyes filled with a soft surprise were gone.

That was until that same evening.

Dany was walking to her chambers after supper when Jon called out after her. She stopped as Ghost was the first to reach her, Jon close at his heals. “Pony, I need to ask something of you. It’s about Sam.” He then proceeded to tell her how all the other boys, except Rast, had agreed to not fight against Sam during their practices nor hurt him, and he hoped that she would do the same.

And right then, in the quiet hallway of the old Flint Barracks, Dany understood what the feeling she had felt towards Jon that morning was, it was a genuine sort of admiration. The sort she felt towards Benjen, Lord Eddard and the Old Bear, the admiration for someone good and willing to do the right thing. She gave him her word that she would not fight Sam, no matter how Ser Alliser taunted her to it. And Jon’s smile while he said his thanks would appear in her dreams that night.

He started to back away when she asked, “What will you do about Rast?”

“I have something in mind,” Jon grinned and caressed the direwolf’s fur.

And the next morning when she heard Rast tell Albett and Toad about cutting himself with his razor while shaving, Dany could not stop the smile spreading on her lips.

Samwell Tarly was safe.

 

* * *

 

“Toad. Stone Head. Aurochs. Maiden. Pimple. Monkey. Lover. Ser Loon, and the Bastard.”  Ser Alliser’s voice was far from congratulating when he assembled his recruits in the yard to give them the news that some of them were going to be passed ahead to the Lord Commander to finally serve as their brothers. “They will call you men of the Night’s Watch now, but you are boys still, green and stinking of summer and when the winter comes you will die like flies,” and with that he left them.

All the other boys gathered around the nine soon-to-be-brothers, laughing and cursing and offering their congratulations. Nonetheless, Dany did not felt happy. Neither did Sam for an entirely different reason. His name had not been called and in truth, Dany wished they could switch places.

The realization that she would swear a vow and serve for life at the Night’s Watch left Dany struck dumb for a moment. Even after almost a year, she did not know how she felt about any of that, as if she had never really considered it or never expected this farce to go so far. Benjen had told her that it would not, but he was gone. Lord Stark was Hand of the King and yet nothing had been done to help her. The trap was closing around her and there had to be something that she could do. However, the prospect of leaving was not as appealing as it had been once, and Dany could not bring herself to leave Maester Aemon behind.

He was the family she had left and wherever she was to go, her blood should go as well.

They were the last ones, but hadn’t he said, _no more?_

That night in an attempt to clear her thoughts, she stood at the top of the Wall and looked upon the world stretching before her. Dany felt restless. All of her life spent from one place to the next and the next, and now she was to stay there and disappear. She wanted to cross the seas and see the world, to walk the streets of the Free Cities, to go as far as the wind would take her. She wanted a freedom she never had. Desperately and in vain, her heart knew she wanted her family. She wanted a belonging she never had. _Home_. She wanted to go home, but where was home? Dany had always felt as if there was no place for her anywhere.

Dany wanted so many things and none of it she could have.

When the cage landed on the ground, Dany heard Pyp’s voice calling for her. Some of the boys were going to Mole’s Town, and it did not surprise her that Jon and Sam was not among them. Keeping in mind that she had an image to portray and because she really wanted to get out of Castle Black for a while, Dany went with them.

Dareon led the party singing softly, Grenn close behind and Pyp remained by her side.

The night air was cool against her face keeping the sleep at bay. She trotted with the other boys in silence, thinking about how would feel to run away as fast as her mare could and immediately shoving the thought to the back of her mind. There was no leaving, no making decisions for herself in such a long time that she didn’t know what to do.

“Do you even know where to put it?” Pyp asked Grenn, laughing at the indignation in the other boy’s face.

“I do so!” Grenn replied.

Pyp laughed even harder, “You wouldn’t know where to put it if someone gave you a map.”

Dany snorted.

Following the kingsroad it did not take long before they reached the village. The boys wanted nothing more than ale and women, so they went straight to the brothel in the cellars. The red lantern that hung over its door indicated the way and Dany recalled it, she had seen a few namedays since the time she had been there but the place remained exactly the same.

The brothel was warm inside, red curtains covered the windows and a strong sweet scent filled the air. Laughing women waded around the place catching the sight of drunken men. Two drunken men played a game of cyvasse, until one of them won by killing the King with a dragon piece and the other got mad, tried to punch his opponent in the face, stumbling ahead with the board and its pieces falling in the floor. A woman danced around collecting coins and showing her breasts. Someone played a harp in the left corner of the room and someone laughed so hard that drink spilled out his nostrils and drops of it landed on Grenn’s black cloak.

Leaving the boys to find someone cheap that would accept their amount of coins, Dany asked after Coni to the nearest unoccupied woman.

“I’m younger, if you want,” the woman said with a crooked smile, tracing a finger on Dany’s left shoulder.

“After, now I wish to speak with Lady Coni,” Dany said as firmly as she could. The woman relented and led her to the back of a long yellow curtain and through a hallway filled with giggles and moans echoing in the dark.

“I knew you’d grow to be beautiful,” Coni had a sad smile as she laid her eyes upon Dany. “Even in these rags, even with a blue hair… ’s the blood of Old Valyria. You remind me of your mother.” Septa Coni had served at Dragonstone in the time Queen Rhaella stayed there during Robert’s Rebellion. When Lord Stark secured Dany’s escape, it was Coni that went north with them while Ser Willem fled across the Narrow Sea with Viserys. It was a long time ago since she had practiced the Faith. She seemed to not have aged since the last time they saw each other, even though she was older than Lord Stark. She had the same hair, same eyes and bitter laugh. “How come no one found you?”

“No one looked _closely_ enough, I suppose.”

Coni laughed and poured two glasses of wine.

“Men are blind, indeed. They only see what they wish to see.” After the many years moving with Dany and taking care of her, Coni married the owner of that brothel and a couple of months later, said husband died in questionable circumstances. “’s how they convince themselves they’re better.”

Suddenly, Coni had a serious glint on her eyes that Dany remembered all too well and as time went back, she was ten years old again and scrawny, looking at the women around with eyes wide with something like weariness, something like wonder. Laugher, playfulness, and a brown-haired woman with long legs saying, _love comes in at the eyes_. They had a home, they had a family and they lost everything and they were there. And Dany for the first time had thought, _am I no one?_  When Coni called her _Stormborn_ one last time and said goodbye, Daenerys Targaryen was left behind as well.

Lady Coni looked at Dany now with the same eyes as she had years before.

“I miss you and those days, but I do not miss the uncertainty, the wait…” she said. Dany, who knew nothing else, felt a longing for the unknown. “How’s Benjen Stark?”

 _Gone_. “He left for a ranging beyond the Wall and still haven’t come back.”

“You alone?” Coni’s voice had that same tone it often had during lessons, that same care. “You can leave then, can go wherever you’d like. The Free Cities, you always wanted to go there and you can, now.”

Then, looking at Coni’s tired eyes, Dany understood that she did not wanted to go back to the life she had had before setting down at the Night’s Watch. It was the freedom of those days that Coni missed, new places and people and the excitement, but for Dany those days were clouded with fear and longing and the ghosts of a past she did not quite belong to. At Castle Black she had her great-uncle, the laughs she shared with the boys, she had Old Bear and his firm protectiveness, and Jon’s lessons.

If she left… _I would be alone still_.

“Would you, my lady?” Dany asked.

Coni smiled that sad smile again, “When I had the choice, I made it, and now I’m old and lived however I could. And I do not regret it, none of it. You are here, and if I had not agreed to it, you would have shared the fate of your brothers. So listen, sweetling, as long as you can choose, _it is yours_ and no one else’s. But be it what you choose, be careful, Daenerys, for the north is a cold place and men are too cruel.”

Later when she said goodbye to Lady Coni, Daenerys Targaryen was not left behind. The past was a prison, and she turned her back to it.

And on the morrow when Lord Commander Mormont asked if any of them wished to leave their company, Dany did not regret the decision to stay.

The words of the vow did not mean much to her and so she latched onto what her heart told to be true. _I am the fire that burns against the cold_. _I am the light that brings the dawn_.

It was her choice.

 

* * *

 

The two corpses had blue eyes and stared up at the sky, unseeing. They had no smell and for the likes of it, it seemed to not be rotting, not as it should be. Odd could not begin to describe it.

“They have been dead for a while, we’re not sure how long,” Sam told her, voice was full of dread. “They were Benjen Stark’s men, two of the six that left with him. That’s what I was told, Jon said so.”

A part of Dany knew it was the sensible thing to presume Benjen was dead as well, but her heart refused to believe it. He was there somewhere, gone, but alive.

Ser Jaremy Rykker was to command a search party in the woods beyond the Wall with all the men he had at his disposal, and that included Dany. Grenn, Pyp, Toad and herself had been recruited to the rangers and were all going in the search to find Benjen Stark and the remaining of his men. When Dany was called to the rangers it didn’t came as a surprise to the other boys, not as it did to her. After all, she was one of the best swordsmen of the new recruits. The surprise had been Jon placed in the order of the stewards, the order in which Dany should have been in the first place. The original plan of Benjen and the Lord Commander was that Dany was to serve as Maester Aemon’s personal steward but that post had been given to Samwell Tarly, and she was then named a ranger.

Dany was in the storeroom, helping and waiting for Maester Aemon to finish examining the corpses when Bowen Marsh came looking for her. “Lord Commander wants to speak with you,” he said and left without waiting for her.

She crossed the yard to the Lord Commander’s tower in no hurry.

The day was warm, too warm. Grey and damp. Maester Aemon called it _spirit summer_ , the season was ending and cold was coming. It was said that a long summer always meant a long winter, and that summer had lasted ten years. Dany wondered if she would live long enough to see spring.

In the stairs of the tower for the Lord Commander’s office she met Jon, but he barely acknowledge her. Something was wrong. And Jon was not the only to act weird that day, for everybody seemed wary and whispering in hushed tones in the corners. Dany supposed that whatever it was, she was about to find out.

“The king is dead,” Mormont told her as soon as she closed the door.

“ _Dead, dead, dead,_ ” the raven chanted from its place in the windowsill. That morning the bird looked particularly pleased with itself. Looking at her and cocking its head in attention, for once it did not asked for corn.

Dany did not had the time to process the information before the Lord Commander continued, “Lord Eddard Stark is accused of treason and has been imprisoned, he is charged for plotting to deny the throne to Prince Joffrey.”

“Lord Stark is…?” the words left her mouth on their own accord. Dany felt numb. She could not process what she was hearing. Should she feel relieved regarding Robert Baratheon’s death? Should she be concerned about what that could entail? What about Lord Stark? He had saved her and protected her and now he was going to die for a crime she was certain he had not committed, for Eddark Stark was a man who had saved two Targaryen children from terrible fates. There was no way that could possibly be true, or was there?

“Daenerys?” Mormont’s voice reached her but she felt as if she was not really standing there. “Are you alright? Talk to me.”

How strange, that the feeling of freedom was such an underwhelming thing.

Dany blinked the fogness away. “You called me by my name, my lord.”

The Old Bear looked exasperated and exhausted, all at once. Lowering his head to his hand, he let out a deep breath and looked up at her. “I might be too old to deal with this. One day is odd dead men found in the woods, the next the king is dead and I have a steward losing his mind because his father is in prison. And now you…” He stopped when he saw the smile spreading across Dany’s lips. “You find that amusing, girl?”

“No I do not, my lord.” And when the serious Lord Commander cracked on laugher, Dany followed him. Old Bear got up and walked to his raven by the window, offering the bird bits of corn. The silence in the room was not as heavy as it had been before and now Dany seemed to be able to think more clearly. “My lord, what will happen now?”

“I would not make the mistake to think you are safe, be it Baratheon or Lannister the king is no friend of a Targaryen. Now, Lord Eddard… I hope that he will be sent here, it is what traitors are offered.” The Old Bear looked at her then and Dany saw that every possibility have already crossed his mind. And that included the one in which she decided to leave. “I know how it looks now, like you can finally go wherever you want, Benjen is gone and Lord Stark can help not even himself now, and Robert Baratheon is dead but even if this changed anything, it doesn’t really change anything. Do you understand?”

Coni’s words crossed her mind then, _as long as you can choose it is yours and no one else’s_ , and Dany knew that it did changed something but her decision have already been made. “I do, my lord.”

The news of the king’s death seemed less interesting than Lord Stark being accused of treason. Everyone at Castle Black had an opinion about it, talking among themselves while going about their business. Nevertheless, most tried to keep quiet or show their condolences when it came to Jon Snow.

Throughout the afternoon, Dany watched as Jon went from one of his tasks to the next in silent inattention, as if he was there in presence but his mind was somewhere else. She wondered if it was King's Landing with his imprisoned father and his sisters, or perhaps Winterfell with his brothers. She wondered also what Robb Stark, that was now the Lord of Winterfell, would do. What would come of the north? Of House Stark? Benjen also crossed her mind often, and she felt his absence as keenly as ever, more so still.

She wondered if she should talk to Jon and give him a word of comfort but the words she wanted to say she could not say it, so it was better to stay silent then say something else without meaning.

Before the evening meal, Dany went to her chambers to light the fire, placing the eggs carefully in the small hearth as she did every night and by the time she walked into the common hall, there was such a commotion happening that it took her by surprise. And she saw Jon being dragged out of the room by two guards, surprise gave way to alarm.

Finding the other boys standing by a table, she walked to them.

“What happened?” she asked to whoever might answer. Her heart was racing inside her chest, a desperate beat that she had not felt in a long while.

“Jon lost it, we tried to stop it, we did!” Pyp replied, looking at the others in the group for support.

“He attacked Ser Alliser,” Sam answered in a small voice, as if he could not quite believe it. But Dany did not need any of them to elaborate because she did believe it. She could imagine the horrible things Ser Alliser must have said to taunt Jon to such a reaction.

They locked Jon in a cell, and neither of his friends were allowed to visit him until the high officers decided what would become of him. They were anxious to help, but there was nothing they could have done. A voice was telling Dany that she should not care and kept reminding her of that during the night.

Later, after hours trying to sleep and not managing, Dany gave up and sat up on her bed, the covers slipping off her body. It was cold. Too cold. The fire in the hearth was almost gone. Getting up, Dany felt her body shiver uncontrollably. _Why is it so cold?_ she asked herself. In the dead silence of the night, she heard a thump outside, like a body falling in the cold ground. Dany closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing, knowing she could not relent to fear. _I am the blood of the dragon_.

She draped her cloak over her body and picked up her sword.

The hallway was dark and there was no one there, whatever she heard had not woken anyone else. Dany walked outside of the building, there was nothing but moonlight and shadows and cold, and still she could not get rid of the feeling that something was wrong. And that was when she saw the body splayed on the ground. When she got close to it, she noticed that the man’s head had been twisted around completely. It was the guard that stayed posted at the entrance of Flint Barracks during the nights.

A shadow crossed her right side and when Dany turned around to see what it was, her breath caught on her throat.

It was Jafer Flowers. The problem was that Jafer Flowers was dead, his corpse had been locked in the storeroom, she had seen it so herself. But there was no time to ponder on the likelihood of what was happening before the man came after her. His eyes were icy blue and somehow bright. Before he could reach her though, someone else hit him. Ser Jaremy Rykker was plunging the sword through the dead man's back. Dany walked forward to help and was suddenly held back, strong and cold hands grabbed her arms and she was thrown away. Her body slid in the ground until stopped against a wood block, her head knocked hard against something on the ground.

The last thing she saw before her vision went black was Ser Jaremy's body falling beside the head of Jafer Flowers.

 

* * *

 

Slipping in and out of consciousness, Dany tried to make sense of where she was and what was happening. _How long had she been out?_ Sitting up slowly, she looked around but saw no one else. Her body was numb with the cold. With shaking fingers, she touched the back of her head where an acute pain was throbbing and felt it warm and wet. She was bleeding. When her eyes landed on her sword in the ground between where she was and where the bodies lay dead, the recent events came back rushing. _Where was the other man?_

The sound of a door creaking and opening coming from the Lord Commander’s tower caught her attention. Dany got up and ran there as fast as she could, stumbling and almost falling in her rush to make sure the Old Bear was alive. The steps in that tower never had looked so dark and cold before.

Her heart was racing with adrenaline and the wound in her head was pounding. It would not take long before she passed out again.

“ _Corn, corn, corn,_ ” she could hear the raven screaming.

When she got to the top, she saw Jon standing in the doorway to the Lord Commander’s solar, Ghost was in the room with him. The drapes had been pulled on the windows and in the darkness they could barely see each other or anyone else.

“Jon?” Dany whispered.

Jon startled, looking back at her scared. When he recognized who she was, he nodded in silent agreement. They were on this together. Turning to the darkness, he called out, “ _Who’s there?”_

Dany knew as sure as the cold they felt, there would be an answer.

A shadow slid out from the shadows, stalking toward the door that led to the sleeping cell. Ghost leapt and man and wolf went down together. Neither scream nor snarl, both were terribly silent, rolling around, knocking over a table laden with papers. Mormont’s raven was flapping around overhead, still screaming, “ _Corn, corn, corn,_ ” and Jon ripped down a curtain bathing the room in moonlight. When both Jon and Dany saw black hands gripping the white fur around the direwolf’s throat, they went ahead and brought down their swords in the dead man’s body.

The sounds in the wool and leather and flesh was wrong somehow, and the smell of it almost made Dany gag.

When Ghost wrenched free and crept away, Dany followed him. Jon slashed the dead man’s pale face, opening to the bone and then he stopped, recognition crossing his grey eyes when he realized who the man was. Othor. Dead Othor, found in the woods.

Dany then felt something on her ankle and looking down, she saw black fingers clawing at her calf. The arm that had been ripped out of its body, was trying to crawl at her leg. At the same time the rest of the corpse lurched forward at Jon. With the sword, Dany pried the fingers from her leg and threw the arm away, where it lay writhing with its fingers opening and closing. Dany felt sick to her stomach. There was no blood, one armed, face cut in half, and yet it seemed to feel nothing.

“Stay away!” Jon said to dead man coming for him, voice gone shrill.

“ _Corn, corn, corn,_ ” the bird screamed on and on and on.

Ghost had sized the dead's arm between his teeth, and dead Othor slammed onto Jon, knocking him off his feet. They both fell on the ground, atop the fallen table and the corpse tried to gag Jon with its black fingers. Dany did not think twice. She went to them and slashed at the dead’s back, kicking him as hard as she could to get him off of Jon, but the body was too heavy. Jon was trying to scream, to free himself, Dany knelt and pushed the body with her hands. The smell so close to her face was overwhelming. Suddenly, there was another pair of arms helping her. When the dead body fell on the ground, Ghost was on it in a second, burying his teeth on its gut and ripping and tearing as it liked.

Lord Mormont stood in the doorway, naked and groggy from sleep with an oil lamp in hand. The arm that had been abandoned by Ghost was now wriggling toward him. Jon staggered to his feet, kicking the arm away from the Lord Commander.

The raven cawed, “ _Burn, burn, burn._ ”

And so, Dany took the lamp from Mormont’s fingers. The flame was almost dying when she flung the lamp in the drapes that Jon had ripped from the window. Glass shattered, oil spewed and all of it went up in flames. The heat of it on her face was the sweetest thing she had ever felt.

“Ghost!” Jon called and the direwolf followed him, but Dany did not move at all. She stood there close to the fire, feeling stronger than she had ever felt. “Pony!” Jon shouted for her but she wanted to tell him that it was all right, that she was fine.

 _Fire cannot kill a dragon_.

Dany closed her eyes and the heat embraced her body as she fell, but she did not hit the ground. Strong arms caught her just in time and took her away from the flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck at writing action scenes and I'm trying to get better so bear with me. Anyway, I hope you still enjoyed it and let me know what you think. Thank you so much for reading, for the kudos and comments and bookmarks, it means a lot.
> 
> [Aegon V Targaryen](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Aegon_V_Targaryen)  
> [Sunfyre](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Sunfyre)  
> [Aegon II Targaryen](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Aegon_II_Targaryen)  
> [Last dragon](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Last_dragon)  
> [Dareon](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dareon), [Albett](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Albett) and [Rast](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Rast)  
> [Mole's Town](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Mole%27s_Town)  
> [Cyvasse](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Cyvasse)  
> [Bowen Marsh](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Bowen_Marsh)


	4. Chapter 4

There was an edge to the darkness as a living thing, she could not see it but it was there nonetheless, and she could count the beats of her heart with the flapping of wings in the sky. It was not fear, but a sense of completion and acceptance, like facing destiny after fighting for too long to run from it. And in the darkness, something approached. She could _feel_ it, and in the moments before recognizing a dream, a deep terror would set on her being. Like the end of worlds and prophecies, the doom that befalls all men.

 _Open your eyes_ … _See_ … Said a voice she did not recognize.

In this particular dream, unlike the ones before, the darkness revealed itself. White forms, blue eyes bright and cold, armors of ice. Death.

 _Blood of the dragon_ …

Suddenly she was no longer facing them on the ground, but mounted on the back of a dragon and bathing the enemy with fire. Strong wings and icy wind. The world was white and orange, cold and hot. Everything was melting away and the feeling that overtook her then was one of euphoria, strong and breathtaking. _This is how it is meant to be_. The world around her was nothing but ice and fire.

 _Stormborn_ …

Someone was calling for her across the ice and fire and blood, it was a different voice from before. _Dany!_

It was Jon Snow’s voice, echoing in the mist. She looked around but could not find him.

_Dany!_

Her eyes opened to find Pyp’s ones staring down at her. “Thought you wouldn’t wake up,” he said and walked away. Dany sat and looked at her surroundings.

Their little camp was quiet, the fire burning meekly in the pit, Pyp gathering his cloak so he could sleep. It was her turn to watch. At her back, the rest of the men who formed the party were fast asleep. Five rangers sent to search for Ben Stark and his men, dead or alive, or somehow in between. After Flowers and Otto, the Lord Commander wanted the Haunted Forest searched again to make sure no other man believed dead or missing was around. That was why the men were there, Dany had been given the task of disappearing.

“I’m sending you to Bear Island,” Old Bear had told her the night after the attack on Castle Black. “I have talked with Maester Aemon and he agreed that is for your best and you cannot wait here any longer, it will keep you safe.” In the old man’s eyes there was pity and genuine concern, something that Dany had seen many times before in Ben’s eyes, and in the few times Lord Stark had talked to her. “Once you are there, you won’t have to hide anymore, and if you wish to leave after a while, you can.” He paused and looked her in the eyes, as serious as Dany had ever seen him. “This is my way of showing you gratitude for saving my life. Freedom, to do with your life what it pleases you.”

Freedom in the brink of a war, how far could she go? While men fought in the South, dead men were rising in the North. Where would she go?

If she was to be honest, Dany wanted to stay there with Maester Aemon, the only family she had left. However, it was no good to voice what she wanted aloud for no one ever listened. And if the Maester himself wanted her gone to protect her, there would be no arguing against it.  “How will I go?” she asked instead.

“How do a man of the Night’s Watch leave the Wall?” the Old Bear replied.

“ _Death, death, death_ ,” the raven at the windowsill sang, black eyes staring at her.

The Old Bear had looked at her then in a way he had never before, as a father looks at his daughter, the care on his eyes touched her. When Dany had arrived at the Wall, she did not expect to become so fond of the old Lord Commander and him of her. In the cold morning she left, Lord Jeor Mormont kissed the top of her hand and bid her farewell in the confines of his tower. When she crossed the gates and looked back, he nodded his head, a silent encouragement for what was to come.

It was colder still beyond the Wall. _I am the blood of the dragon_ , she had told herself again.

It had been even more difficult to say goodbye to Maester Aemon. He had held her hands in his, trying to console her. “We knew it was a matter of time before you had to leave, sweetling. I have been told you grow beautiful each passing day and I do not need sight to know it true, for Targaryen princesses were always the most beautiful in all of Westeros,” he chuckled, lost in the past. “You are young and alive, and I am nothing but an old man trapped in this life for the remaining of my days, few as it might be.”

 _We are the blood of the dragon_.

Dany had wanted to argue, tell him she wished to spend the remaining of his days by his side, but all she did was cry and held onto him, the last family she would ever know. The dragon eggs she took with her and promised to take care of it as he did.

 _No more_ …

Now, days later, Dany sat at their camp and stared at the flames drawing strength from it.

If she closed her eyes, she could see him… _Jon_ , standing in front of the fireplace back on her old room at Castle Black. In the past days, she had avoided thinking about it but when there was nothing to occupy her mind, it would drift back to it. Back to that knock on her door. Back to his words and grey eyes. Ghost had been by his side when she opened the door. His sword hand was wrapped in a linen cloth, it had been burned in the attempt to save her from the fire. Jon did save her that night, her cloak burned but nothing more because he got her out of there just in time, before she could fall in the flames. He carried her away, took her to the Maester.

He knew it then.

She could see it in his eyes while he stood there, awkwardly wondering how to say it.

“You are a girl,” Jon had said. He did not question what he was sure of.

For the first time in a long while, her voice was her own when she had replied, “yes,” and Jon’s eyes softened in a way Dany had not anticipated, though she had seen it briefly once before.

Unbidden, her feet took a step closer to him. She wanted to explain, to get it out of her chest in the hopes that he would understand. Lord Stark, Ben, the Wall and Maester Aemon. Be it because it was Jon or not, she was not sure, Dany was mostly tired of lying and Jon was someone who could keep the truth as his family did, that much she was sure. Dany was tired of feeling alone as well, and Jon was just as lonely as she was. Never quite fitting in, as if something was missing.

“Who else know of this?” Jon had asked, and Ghost standing by his side, had looked at her with its red knowing eyes.

 _It takes only one of the men finding out and…_ _This place is not what it used to be. Not every black brother has Stark’s honor._ The truth, Dany decided then, was better left of buried.

“It’s colder at this hour, right before dawn,” Dirk sat a few feet away from her, he was awake and sharpening his weapon of choice, the one he took his name from and talking with no one in particular. Men talked to themselves more oft than not beyond the Wall, keeping the cold away, reassuring themselves of things, listening to their own thoughts to prevent madness. “Sand, we should wake the others and be on our way,” Dirk told her, getting up and picking up his things.

How long had she been staring at the fire, lost in memories?

While Dirk woke up the others, Dany gathered her things. The longsword that Benjen had given her, the satchel with the eggs, the marked map given by the Lord Commander. Putting out the fire, Dany thought to herself that Dirk was right and it was time, she should be on her way.

 

* * *

 

A cold wind was blowing out of the north and the trees rustled as if alive. When you are far up north, the real enemy is the cold. It creeps up on you and makes you numb. It burns. Nothing burns like the cold.

The party had been riding for days and each day had been worse than the one before, but that afternoon was the worst of all.

Dany could feel the cold rackling her bones. Her right shoulder was sore from carrying the weight of the satchel, and she was hungry and tired. They all were. But the men would go back to Castle Black soon and Dany would follow the Gorge until she could find the Bay of Ice, where hopefully someone would still be waiting for her on a boat that would take her to Bear Island. There was not much time left, she had to hurry.

They had searched and searched around the Haunted Forest but there were no other men, dead or alive, to be seen. So in the morning they would ride back to the Wall.

In front of her, someone was chuckling lowly at something he had seen, others were talking in whispers, Pyp quietly looked around, and Dany was thinking how she could get away from them. It seemed there was no other options but to wait for the night to come. It would be easier to run and hide, more dangerous as well, but there was nothing else to do, she had to fend for herself. No matter how frightening the woods seemed at night.

Dany remained lost in thoughts for most of the ride, until the sun was setting and the cold wind became merciless. It cut right through her. Light snow had fallen the night before, but it had not been as cold as it was then.

“I can’t feel my hands,” Pyp said. She had not seen when he had stopped by her side.

“Let’s make a fire,” Dirk said. “It will help some.”

They set out camp and drew the watches for the night. Shared rabbit meat and ale by the small fire. Though Dany was feeling too nervous to eat, she forced herself to do it for she knew the strength would help in the following day.

“Do you miss travelling, Pyp?” she asked the boy sitting next to her.

For a moment, he seemed taken aback by the question, and then, “Sometimes. I wonder about the places I never saw. But ‘s alright.” He shrugged. “You miss Dorne?”

Dany tried not to smile, she had never been to Dorne. “I grew up here in the North, so I don’t really remember Dorne.”

“I miss the Wall, weird huh?” Pyp said and chuckled.

“Not at all,” she replied, and it was true. She missed Castle Black as well. The ones she had left there. “Well, you’ll be there soon.” She was going to miss the boys, they had somewhat became her friends, but now they would be only another place she had to leave behind.

“You and me both, Pony.”

That thought stayed in her mind for hours. And later, Dany tried to sleep but could not, and when her time to watch came, she felt guilty for what she was about to do.

 _Go southwest and find the Gorge, follow it and it will take you to the Bay of Ice. Once you find water there is no mistake, you will find the bay_. Dany had asked the Lord Commander if the men would go after her, and he had not lied to her. _They might for a while, and when they realize you deserted, they will come back to tell me about it_. Fast, she had to be faster than them.

Dany looked at the men sleeping unaware, gathered her things and walked away as quietly as possible. She had tied her mare the farthest from their camp as she could without raising any questions. Letting it loose, she mounted and off they went.

The moon was bright in the clear sky. Shadows crept up around, the woods were silent, no animals or something else to be heard. Dany could feel her heart hammering inside her chest. Taking deep breaths to calm herself and convince the traitorous thoughts on her head that she was doing what she was supposed to do. She was not a man of the Night’s Watch, she was Daenerys Targaryen and she would live.

 _I am the fire that burns against the cold_.

The vow echoed in the darkness around her and the weight of it made Dany stop.

 _I am the light that brings the dawn_. That had been her choice, but this was her choice as well. Was it not?

The leaves rustled in the trees.

The mare wanted to keep going, restless and squirmish. Dany touched her mane, trying to pass a calm she did not felt. “Shh… it’s alright.” But there was something wrong. She could feel it in the cold air, and so could the mare.

“Pony!” a hushed voice called from the trees behind. It was Pyp and Dany’s heart sank, knowing she now faced two choices. They were not too far from the clearing where their camp was. Was anyone else awake? “Where are you going?!” he was coming after her on his own mount that too seemed restless, a question in his big eyes.

“I…” Dany could not find the words to lie to him.

He looked at her waiting, but it was the woods though, that gave an answer: the rustle of leaves grew louder, the rush of a stream nearby. It was so cold it burned.

Dany was having a hard time keeping a grip on the mare. She remembered that cold and what would come with it. If she closed her eyes, she could see Jafer Flowers’ head rolling in the cold ground, dead. Pyp could feel it too. He looked around with wide eyes and she could see the fear she felt reflected on it. Her breath caught in her throat.

There was movement in the corner of her eyes.

Pale shapes gliding through the wood, white shadows coming out of the trees and walking forward, towards the clearing, they did not seem to notice Dany and Pyp hidden among trees and out their way. But for how long? Dany did not wanted to find out, she had to go. The shadows were there in a moment, gone the next like a trick of light.

Strangely, Dany thought of her dreams and the edge in the darkness, the enemy there. The cold, the armors of ice, the bright blue eyes…

She wanted to call out a warning for Pyp, but the words froze in her mouth. The horses were terrified, they knew.

Before there was time to second-guess, they both moved. Dany was riding her mare away in what she hoped was southwest. She looked back at Pyp, but he was not following. Dropping out of his horse, he was running back and Dany wanted to call him to stop. If they went to that clearing where the shadows went, they would die. There was no time to embarrassment or guilt while she ran away, struggling against the weight on her shoulder, the tears wanting to fall, the hurt on her body from the cold. The mare was desperate to get as far from there as it could.

Dany’s breath was coming out short while she ducked out of branches, leaves, and anything else in the way. She hoped Pyp was alright. She looked back quickly and saw nothing behind, turned around and managed to keep the mare running.

In the distance, she could hear the men fighting for their lives, but there was no clash of steel only a high, thin sound. Only warnings and pleas.

The Others made no sound.

 

* * *

 

When Dany woke up, her whole body protested in pain. Her eyes were heavy from crying until sleep overcame her, and then not sleeping long enough. Her stomach was empty, there was no water or food. She could barely move her left arm from when she had fallen off the mare onto the ground, trying to stop the worse of the fall but almost breaking her arm in the process. The rest of her body was hurting from the cold.

The mare was gone after she fell, too scared to remain around.

The woods were silent. The sun shining without warmth in the sky. Dark and grey clouds moved with the wind, it was going to rain soon. A raven was flying about, circles above her head.

And Dany wondered how long until she would pass out from hunger and exhaustion. Picking up the map, she looked at it trying to find out how far she was from the Gorge. She could barely see the marks the Old Bear had made in the map. She had no clue of where she was, how far the mare had taken her or which direction. Somehow, Dany suspected it was not south.

She got up, picked up her things, and started to walk for what it seemed like hours until she could no longer do it. Her body gave up and she fell, too tired to try to get up again.

There were sounds in the woods, or was it inside of her head? Maybe her consciousness was finally talking to her, she talked back a few times.

How long had she walked? Ridden on the back of the mare? How far was the clearing? Were the rest of the party still alive? Where were they? Was she? Pyp? How many days had been since that night? Were the shadows close?

In the distance, a wolf was howling.

The sun was behind the grey clouds and Dany prayed for rain… Perhaps it was the moon instead of the sun.

The wind whispered against her cheeks.

She closed her eyes again.

 

* * *

 

 _“Open your eyes,”_ said a voice so soft it was hard to hear. Oddly familiar.

The cold had been replaced with blessed warmth, her body was hurting less, the weight on her shoulder was gone, her longsword too. Dany blinked to find herself awake in a very dark place.

Wherever she was there was no ice, no snow or rain, no wind, only whispers in the darkness. When her eyes adjusted to it, she could see what was around her. It was a cave, with many roots everywhere, twisting through earth and stone, up and down. Wood as white as the weirwood trees in the Haunted Forest, and everything else was black. It was a great cavern in a black abyss. There was no sunlight or moonlight, no way of knowing either outside was day or night. A natural bridge crossed a black deep river and on the other side of it was a throne of tangled roots.

Getting up, Dany crossed the bridge with small, careful steps.

Sitting on the throne was a man, pale and skeletal, wearing rotted black clothing. White skin and white hair long enough that could reach the ground. He was missing one eye and the other was red, from the empty socket, roots grew out of it as well as the rest of his body where roots surrounded him and grew.

“Daenerys Targaryen,” he said, and she realized that the voice belonged to him. “At last.”

Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning around, Dany saw a little girl. But looking closely it was not a little girl at all. It was a very small woman or so Dany thought. It had brown skin dappled like a deer's and large ears, large liquid gold and green eyes like a cat's, hair a tangle of autumn colors with vines and twigs and withered flowers through it.

It was as small as a child was but much older, Dany later would learn. Her name was too long for human tongues. The children of the forest, the few that remained, were serving the last greenseer. The man in the throne.

 _There are wonders beyond the Wall, ancient and real_ , Maester Aemon had said once and yet… It was not so easy to believe.

In the few following days that she stayed in the cave, Dany got her wounds taken care of, food and water, her body did not suffered from the cold. She slept well and recovered her strength. Dany had spent a few days wandering lost in the woods, in the fall, she had knocked her head on the ground and sustained an injury. She had had fever and hunger, her body had given up to exhaustion. In the cave, she watched the children coming and going about, murmuring songs and talking in a language Dany did not understand.

On her third night there, she dreamt of the Wall and the white dragon and when she woke up the morning after, the greenseer told her, “it is time, Daenerys.”

The first time Dany has asked him how he knew who she was, all the answer she got was that he knew much about her and he would tell her when it was time. She had not argued, only waited. Everything he said to her was, _I think_ _it is cleverer than most think_ , and that words took her back to the raven standing on the windowsill of the Lord Commander’s tower, asking for corn and looking at her with knowing black eyes.

“He has a thousand eyes and one, he knows you,” one of the children, the only who knew the common tongue of Westeros, told her one day while she helped Dany with her left arm.

He was Brynden Rivers, or had been a long time ago, and that man Dany knew who was. Maester Aemon had told stories about him. Brynden was the bastard of Aegon IV, a Targaryen loyalist during the Blackfyre Rebellions. He was sent to the Night’s Watch where he rose to the position of Lord Commander. How he had end up in that cave, was a story only he knew.

“It is time for you to follow your path. To embrace the words of your House, to remember who you are and who you are meant to be. There is much to come and you have to be ready for it.”

“For what?” she asked, though a part of her knew the answer.

Dany remembered clearly of the pale shapes in the woods, white shadows moving without any sound, death approaching in the darkness. In her dreams, she fought them, mounted in the back of a dragon…

“War,” the greenseer replied, “there’s many battles ahead, and you will fight men, lies, betrayals and finally, you will face the real enemy. And to reach the light you must pass beneath the shadows… You must always remember who you are.”

Right then, Dany could hear the rustling of the leaves, they were whispering, words that only she could understand.

_I am the blood of the dragon…_

_As long as you can choose, it is yours and no one else’s_ …

 _The dragon feeds on lion and sheep alike_ …

 _Fire cannot kill a dragon_ …

 _Stormborn_ …

 _I feel their hot breath. I see wings flying above the snow_ …

The whispering stopped.

“Say the words, Daenerys,” his soft voice echoed in the darkness.

Dany fell on her knees and the tears on her eyes blurred her vision, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The words Dany had not uttered aloud in so many years, that she had been raised to believe it was better kept safe and hidden came forward, her family, her House, her legacy. Maester Aemon had been right all along, she was a Targaryen, not a ragged bastard boy.

She opened her eyes.

“ _Fire and blood_ ,” Daenerys Targaryen said.

The last greenseer nodded, “I have two gifts for you, Daenerys, please accept it if you will. I have been keeping it safe for a long time. The second gift is on one of the vaults of the Nightfort and you will have to get it yourself, but the first one…” His right frail hand gestured to under his throne, and the children of the forest who had been helping Dany went to pick it up. “Give it to her,” he instructed. It was something covered in a black cloak and when it got handed to Dany, she could feel its weight.

It was a longsword. But when she uncovered, she could see it was not any longsword. It was Valyrian steel, its slender blade lighter and sharper than ordinary steel. Its rippled patterns glinted in the darkness. There was a red stone glinting in the center of the pommel. It took Dany’s breath away. Was it possible?

“ _Dark Sister_ ,” said the greenseer. “One of the two ancestral swords of House Targaryen. Wielded by Visenya Targaryen and Aemon the Dragonknight and among few others… me, when I was Brynden Rivers, a long time ago. Though it served me well, I have always preferred my weirwood longbow,” the greenseer rasped a weird sound that seemed to be a laugh.

Dany could not believe she held in her hands one of the swords of the Conquest. A sword that belonged to House Targaryen. Hers by birthright, like the eggs in the satchel.

“It’s beautiful,” Dany said. “Thank you.”

The last greenseer looked at Dany with his one red eye. “Be careful, Daenerys, she has a thirst for blood.”

 

* * *

 

The morning came, grey and cold. After spending some time underground, the wind and the smell of the wood was a gentle caress on her body. She felt alive, and less lost than she had been before.

“There is a storm coming,” the children woman said, looking up at the sky, taking a deep breath. “Can you feel it? The air is heavy with it.”

Dany could. “I can make it on time, hopefully. Thank you for the horse.”

She bowed her head and walked back to the cleft between the weirwood trees that hid the entry to the greenseer's cave. _Follow the raven and I will take you there_ , he had said to her. There was a lot ground to cover, but at least this time she had food and water and a horse. She could make it to the Nightfort before the storm. She thought that maybe once she was there, she could send a raven to Castle Black, to let Maester Aemon and the Old Bear know that while she had made it to the Bay of Ice, she was alive and well. That was the least she could do.

Dany rode south keeping the horse at a good pace. At night, she would stop to rest for a few hours. Then she was up and on her way again, led by the raven. It was hard not to think about that night when the white shadows walked among the trees, how many of the men may have died, of the fear on Pyp’s eyes. She wondered if he was alive, and if he was, if he thought of her as a coward. She asked herself why it should matter, but it did.

No matter how many times Dany tried to absolve herself, the truth was that she could not do it.

The greenseer told her that there was no other way, that she had to leave and save her life as she did. But guilt and regret were deep-rooted things. It crawled inside of her like the roots of weirwood trees on the greenseer’s body.

In her second night in the cave, she had asked him if Pyp was alive. He answered her that she would learn the answer in time. He gave that reply to most of the things she had voiced aloud. Questions about her family, about her life in the North, about Benjen Stark and Lord Eddard. _You will have the answer you seek when you ask the right question_ , he told her once and after that, she had given up. If no questions she had asked were right, maybe she was not ready for the answer.

When she finally got out of the Haunted Forest and could see the Wall in the horizon, she followed the raven southeast.

 _The Black Gate will take you through the Wall to the insides of the castle. To pass it you must repeat a part of your vows, and then it will open and let you pass_. The closer to the Wall, the more nervous Dany felt. She had voiced her concern about the Gate not letting her pass because of her desertion, but the concern was not shared by the greenseer. _The vows have more meaning than what is known for_ , he had told her simply.

As old as the Wall itself.

Dany stopped before the Black Gate, it glowed. The face was pale, shrunken, and wrinkled and old, it reminded her of Maester Aemon. She approached and the eyes opened, white and blind, staring straight at where she stood.

“Who are you?” it asked.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Dany answered.

“I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.” When she finished, her heart seemed ready to stop beating inside her chest.

Then, a few seconds later the door opened.

“Then pass.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the support, the patience, really, for everything! It means a lot to me. For the ones that are still with me after so long, for the ones that are reading for the first time... I hope you enjoyed, let me know. For the ones dying for more of Jon/Dany interactions, hang in there! It's coming.
> 
> [Dirk](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dirk)   
>  [Gorge](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Gorge)   
>  [Bay of Ice](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Bay_of_Ice)   
>  [Others](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Others)   
>  [Cave of the three-eyed crow](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Cave_of_the_three-eyed_crow)   
>  [Brynden Rivers](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Brynden_Rivers)   
>  [Leaf](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Leaf)   
>  [Dark Sister](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dark_Sister)   
>  [Black Gate](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Nightfort)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning:** attempt of rape and graphic depictions of violence.

Ghosts whispered in those ruins, ancient sayings, songs, broken vows…

When old Lord Commander Mormont talked about that place he always mentioned how grim and dreadful it was. To Maester Aemon it was a haunted ruin. The first of the Night Watch’s castles to be closed, many years ago, during the reign of Good Queen Alysanne. Closed and forgotten, and the past seemed to be a living thing among what was left.

The Nightfort was nothing like Castle Black.

After staying abandoned for so long, the castle now was nothing but structures falling apart and wilderness growing in and out of the place. The yards had become small forests and in the kitchen, a weirwood tree grew through a hole in the wall. The tunnels were colder than the outside of the castle, there was no light only shadows creeping up at the walls. No sound to be heard but the steps one took, leaving darkness behind. And Dany felt her bones bend with the cold in each step she took. There were numerous vaults in the maze of tunnels of the abandoned Nightfort, and she had lost count of how many she had searched already and came up empty. She did not gave up, taking slow steps, breathing steady, holding a torch to light the way.

 _Targaryens have always dreamed of things to come_.

The white dragon flying atop the Wall… The golden dragon shinning against the bright sun… And the red… She was mounted in the back of the dragon, bathing the enemy with fire.

One night and one day had come and gone while she searched for the second gift.

It was a dragon egg. Stolen from its owner, Lord Ambrose Butterwell, many years ago during a wedding tourney at Whitewalls. The greenseer had told her the story. Back then he was still Brynden Rivers, Hand of the King, stopping another rebellion from taking place. It was supposed to be the champion’s prize, the egg that years later Brynden would take with him to the Wall and hide it there.

 _You must find it… The dragon has three heads_.

Dany stopped in front of the next vault. She could listen to the rain and the wind outside now, so the storm had finally arrived. Swinging the ax in the locker, she opened the door, and when the light of the torch illuminated inside, she could see a small chest in the ground. Her heart was pounding when she knelt in front of it, she opened and inside was her third egg. She held it between her hands. The scales were smooth beneath her fingers, and the deep, rich red seemed to shimmer as she turned the egg in her hands. _Fire and blood_ , Dany thought, but there were gold flecks in it as well and black whorls. It was wonderful and hers. Before she realized, there were tears falling from her eyes. _There is a prophecy about the return of the dragons_ , Maester Aemon had told her once and now there she was, and it felt as if she were holding the legacy of House Targaryen on her hands.

“Remember your words,” was the only answer the greenseer had given to her, and the dreams. In her dreams the dragons were fire made flesh. Alive.

Taking the egg and the torch, she walked back to the kitchen as fast as she could.

Up there, the wind was so strong that the remaining walls of the castle were shaking. The domed roof seemed ready to give out at any moment. Dany wondered if she would be safer elsewhere and decided it was best to stay where she was. How many storms had it managed to hold so far? Night had fallen again, and there was nothing outside that was better than where she was. The wind raged with the rain falling from the sky, the sound was deafening.

She sat on the floor of the kitchen, and taking the eggs from the satchel, she placed them beside each other on the floor. The red, the white and the gold. _The dragon has three heads_ … With the tip of her fingers, she traced each one, feeling the texture and colors. So immersed in their beauty that she did not heard when they came in.

“Don’t move,” said a voice from behind her, and ice settled on her body.

Dany looked back startled and a man stepped in her view, and the first thing Dany noticed was that she knew exactly who he was. She remembered the day he arrived at the Castle Black, him and a friend of his, at the same party in which Tyrion Lannister was, and Jon Snow.

“’s not you we looking for,” Rast said. He clicked his tongue between his rooted teeth. “But will do alright.”

Someone laughed behind him and stepped out of the shadows. The face was familiar even if the name eluded her. She had fought them in the yard many times, Ser Alliser screaming at them for their incompetence. Had seen Jon threaten them on Sam’s behalf. Felt their eyes on her longer than it should have been, no matter how she tried to avoid them.

Dany placed the eggs inside the satchel and searched around with her eyes for the sword while the men talked behind her. She could not ignore their voices for they were close, and she did not wanted to, her whole body was in alert. Dark Sister was laid upon the table, a little far of reach. The beats of her heart as loud as the walls shaking with the force of the wind outside. She did not listened to what they have told her, she moved as fast as she could. Before her fingers could reach the sword though, hands grabbed her from behind and threw her back. Dany fell hard on the floor and not a second later, someone was upon her. She tried to kick him but he held her leg and pushed her to him. Her scream cut through the night, the rain, the fierce wind, but there was no one in miles that could listen. A hand slapped her hard across the face and she could taste her own blood on her mouth, the same hand held her chin and a foul smell took over when he lowered his face upon hers, licking the side of her face. If Dany could she would have gagged, but she could barely breathe. His body pressed hers down trying to keep her from moving. Somewhere around them, she could hear footsteps and then dirty boots stopped in front of her face. He lowered and a dagger traced from her temple to chin.

“’s better if you don’t fight me, Pony, you know I can beat ya.” Rast took the dagger out and his friend started to work on the laces of her pants while she desperately kicked her legs.

Dany screamed again, or maybe she had not stopped for a second, making the hand go back to her mouth and without thinking twice, she bit it, taking blood and flesh with her teeth. The man screamed and before he could get any further, she knocked her head against his. Pain exploded and another pair of hands tried to grab her, but she did not stopped. She tried to get up but Rast caught her from behind and sunk the dagger on the left side of her belly. Dany screamed and pushed back until both of them fell on the floor. She rolled away from him and managed to get up before they caught her again, kicking one arm that went for her foot and limping to pick up the sword. One of them was up again and grabbed her left arm, she turned around and punched him in the face breaking at least two knuckles. But she could not stop, no matter how much pain. Fear was pumping adrenaline through her veins.

 _I fear for what might happen to you here_.

When Rast came closer again, she had Dark Sister on her hands.

Rast was about to draw his own longsword but Dany attacked without giving him any time. She sliced his hand and the sword he was holding fell on the ground with it. The steel was sharp as new, the rippled patterns reflecting the torch light as if alive. His scream echoed in the ruins and stopped when Dany slashed his face from one end to the other, cutting through flesh and bone. Rast fell on the floor and Dany moved for the other man who was going for the door, he had not once tried to save his friend. If he lived, there would be no remorse. She caught up with him on time and ran the blade through his back, making him fall on his knee. He might have pleaded, but there was no forgiveness. One, two, three hits against his neck, four and blood was spilling everywhere, his head fell off his body to roll on the floor, his feet jerked in aftershock. A clean cut would have done it, but her arms were shaking too badly and her vision was blurred.

Dany did not realized she had been screaming with each hit until she was quiet afterwards, breathing hard and fast, her heart hammering inside her chest. Blood covered her body, hers and theirs. The dagger still sunk in her belly. An iron taste inside her mouth that was making her nauseous.

A pool of blood was forming on the floor.

Dany looked at her left hand weakly holding the Valyrian sword. _Be careful, Daenerys, she has a thirst for blood_. The steel was painted red, dripping blood on the floor. Walking to the table, Dany placed the sword on top of it again and took a few steps back, breathing slowly trying to calm the panic rising inside of her but it was no use. She closed her eyes and listened to the storm outside.

 _I am the blood of the dragon_.

Her legs gave out and she fell on the floor. Sobs shook her whole body, and she stayed that way until the taste and smell of blood around was so strong that she could not take it any longer. Dany got up and ran outside, stepping into the rain falling from the sky. The force of the wind was such that she had to kneel. Retching anything that was still inside of her stomach. Her body was a wreck but she felt numb about everything else.

 

* * *

 

Rain fell heavily from the sky still and during the night, those woods became a dangerous and unpredictable place. With the lack of light and the curtain of water ahead, not much could be seen, and the fierce wind was still a force even though the worse of the storm had passed a few of hours ago.

Dany had sheltered as best as she could in that situation, finding a large oak tree as cover. She sat there amidst the roots feeling her body trembling underneath her wet clothes. Maybe it would be good to sleep to forget the cold, but she could not do it. She had tried but her eyes would snap open at the faintest sound, heart racing inside her chest. Her eyes wandered around again, there was nothing but trees and moss and rain. The sound of the raindrops would be calming if she was not feeling so cold, her body hurting. The wound on her belly a painful reminder that she was running out of time, but the weather was merciless. The fingers of her right hand she had tied with a dirty linen cloth in an attempt to keep it steady, she could not put the bone back in place on her own but eventually it would have to be done or it would not properly heal. The bodies she had locked in a cell, there was no way to burn it with that rain. If they came back to life, at least they would not be wandering around.

At some point exhaustion started to win and her eyelids became too heavy, blinking very slowly and somewhere in the back of her mind she was glad for finally being able to drift off to sleep.

It might have been a few minutes or few hours, Dany was startled awake by a sound deep in the woods. When her eyes opened, she tried to focus her attention on the sounds, but it was not easy to hear anything other than the rain falling hard on the ground. Dany tried to stop the panic from settling in but before she could convince herself there was nothing out there, she heard it. It was a low growling coming from behind the trees.

 _Wolves_.

Dany got up at the same time that the growling became louder. It was more than one and there was no way of knowing how close they were. After cutting the reins from the tree, she mounted the horse fast as she could with her battered body and kicked at it to run, and so it did.

The raindrops were still falling, making it hard to see or hear anything. Thunder filled the sky, shaking the trees and the horse slowed down scared. Dany panicked and tried to keep the control and it was then that she saw a white shadow running among the trees, she thought then of the white shadows in the Haunted Forest beyond the Wall, but this shadow was different, as fast as the wind and much larger than any wolf she had ever seen. For a fleeting moment, she thought of Ghost, but it could not be. Not that far from Castle Black. Her eyes blinked, and it was gone.

The wolves were growling and snarling at each other, fighting for the lead, too hungry to share the prey, she could hear them coming after her. A pack.

Dany managed to keep the horse running, reaching a hill. The trees were probably as high as the eye could see. Rain, darkness, and she looked around quickly seeing nothing. Then in the next moment without any sound as a warning, she was knocked out of the horse, falling hard on the ground. Something had hit her from her left, too fast and strong, and then she was rolling in leaves and mud and something huge was falling down the hill with her. Dany wanted to scream but did not, she kept rolling down the hill, trying to hold onto something. Coming to a stop suddenly after she reached out to hold a tree root. In the middle of the mud, she felt the dagger sank in deeper and cried out in pain. If Dany thought she could survive the wound before, she was not so sure anymore.

In the distance, up on the hill, the wolves had gotten ahold of the horse. The screeching was terrible.

Dany’s breathing was shallow and her body screamed in protest to any move she made. Pushing herself through the ground, she crawled and sat against the tree. She looked down at her body and saw the dagger sunk in her belly, and with shaking fingers, she touched it. It hurt badly, making a whimper come out of her pressed lips. Dany barely had time to spare a thought to what she should do with her wound when she saw that the wolf that had fallen down the hill after her was coming closer. Walking slowly and purposely, as if assessing her.

It was indeed too big to be a common wolf. It had the size of a small horse, white fur covered with mud and dirt, and red eyes. _Ghost_. As he stopped in front of her, Dany realized, she had never before felt more insignificant or little. Maester Aemon talked about the wonders of the world so fondly… The direwolf's eyes looked at her as if it could sense her every emotion. Maybe it could, she certainly did not doubted. Ghost had grown quite a lot since the last time she had seen him. How long had it been? A month? A bit more? Her body shook so violently, but she did not know if it was from cold or out of fear. _Does he recognize me?_ Dany thought she could see something on his eyes.

“Ghost…” _Where is he…_? She wanted to ask but her voice was too weak, it refused to come out.

Ghost nudged her right leg with its nose and she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened again, and looked right into his red eyes. Unblinking. The beats of her heart were just as loud in her ears as the thunders that filled the sky. Ghost kept nudging her skin, smelling her scent, and stopping at the wound. Dany wondered how intoxicating the smell of blood could be.

The direwolf looked up suddenly, listening to something that only his precise hearing could hear while she could listen to nothing, only the rain. Ghost stalked away going to her right and she looked at him while he approached a man coming from behind a tree. _Jon_. The man stopped and scratched Ghost's head, as if assuring his pet that it had done a good work. He was wearing a black cloak with a hood, hiding his face. Turning his head to her direction, he started to walk over to where she was, sitting under that tree, soaked to the bone and bleeding. Ghost padded along with him. Jon stopped in front of her and lowered until he was within eye level. There was a scarf covering most of his face, so she could only see his eyes. Grey and warm as she remembered, staring as if he could see right through her violet ones.

Jon. He looked the same and that somehow was a comfort.

As the seconds stretched, he simply stood there looking at her. Dany did not know what to do so she stared back. Wishing that she could control the tremors of her body, not wanting him to think that she was afraid. But be it for the better or worse, her body had stopped responding to commands. She wanted to say something, but words eluded her.

Jon took the scarf off his face and slowly as if to not scare her, reached out his right hand and placed it over her face. His fingers traced the shape of it, taking out the dirt in his wake. His gloved touch was firm, he was not trembling as she was despite having his body as much soaked from rain as she did. Dany held his stare and saw that something had ignited in his eyes, something akin to recognition. He knew who she was and was just making sure of that. Her chest was rising and falling fast and she wondered what he was doing there, was he there to capture her? No, she ran away by the Lord Commander’s orders. It had to be something else. But she was so weak and tired that she couldn’t think of anything. Jon looked at her hair and his eyes narrowed at the silver roots above the blue strands.

Ghost stayed by his side waiting, he did not made a single sound.

Thunder filled the sky once again and the rain got somehow worse.

His eyes then followed her body to find the dagger sunk in her belly. His hand fell from her face and she followed it with her eyes, looking at it as he placed it in the dagger's hilt. She looked back at him with wide eyes and before she could say anything, he wrenched it out of her body. Dany’s scream was covered by his left hand, and the next thing she acknowledged was darkness.

 

* * *

 

Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

In the first dream she was walking down a dark and long hall, there was a door at the end of it that she wanted to reach. It was cold but her body felt warm. There was someone, some _thing_ behind her but she could not look back. Must not look behind. Therefore, she kept walking, she did not wanted to run towards the door but was close to doing it so. It was not quite fear that made her move. She was leaving bloody footprints on the ground.

 _You must always remember who you are. Remember your words_.

When she reached the door and opened it, she walked inside a room. “Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, my little princess,” Septa Coni was standing close to the window looking out and Dany was sitting at the table, an open book in front of her. The bright light of the sun entered the room and Coni turned translucent, one moment she was there and in the next, she was gone. “The last dragon”, her voice whispered. The light filled the whole room.

 _…must always remember who you are_ …

Lord Eddard Stark knelt in front of her, “One day I will tell you everything you need to know, child.” He had sorrow on his eyes and she did not understand why. He looked up at the sky then, birds flying away and he looked far ahead, to something she could not see. “You have to be strong,” he told her, or someone else, as he had done once before. _Winter is coming_.

No, that was not it. Or was it?

_…who you are… Remember your words._

She could feel the heat, building up inside of her. “I feel their hot breath. I see wings flying above the snow,” Maester Aemon had sad, sad eyes looking at the past, at the future… He stared straight at her and opened his mouth, fire poured out burning everything around them, burning him, and in an instant he was gone leaving only ashes where he had stood a moment before. In the middle of the ashes three eggs remained. She knelt to pick it up but the eggs turned into ashes too and the wind blew it away. When she looked up and around her, ghosts lined the room. They were dressed as kings and in their hands they held swords of pale fire. They had silver hair like hers, and gold and platinum white… They told her to run and so she did and when she fell, she was flying instead.

 _Remember your words_ …

High and higher and the snow in the ground turned red. And the snow became the river where her brother Rhaegar stood, black armor smeared with blood. “The last dragon,” Coni’s voice whispered faintly. When Dany lifted his polished black visor, the face within was her own.

She woke to the taste of ashes.

When Dany opened her eyes and saw Jon Snow’s grey ones staring at her, she had to blink a few times to understand how it felt, to wake up like that.

After her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized she was back at the Nightfort. Daylight was coming through the kitchen door but was it morning or afternoon she had no idea. Her clothes were not wet anymore, and she lightly touched her belly to find out that the dagger was gone.

 _Flying_ , she thought. _I was flying, I had wings_. But it was only a dream. She tried to sit but was too weak to do so.

“Try not to move too fast,” Jon said and got up from where he was sitting on the floor and meant to help her, but stopped before touching her. He looked at her as if waiting for permission. Dany nodded once and he helped her to sit and lean against the wall. He picked his canteen of water and offered it to her. “Here, drink slowly.”

She did, her mouth was dry, her voice cracking with the lack of use. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “How long was I out?”

“Almost three days, this night would be the third one.”

The linen cloth that wrapped her broken fingers together had been replaced by a small piece of wood knotted with stripes of the linen cloth, keeping the fingers from bending, it hurt less as if the bones had been put in the right place. With her left hand, she touched the wound on her belly, it was covered and the bleeding had stopped, she could feel the stitches. She looked up at Jon… He had carried her to a shelter, tended to her wounds and waited for her to wake up. He had saved her.

“Thank you,” Dany told him honestly.

“I’m no Maester but I did the best I could,” Jon said and avoided her eyes. It must have been a trick of the light but Dany could swear a faint blush was covering his cheeks. “It will scar, the stitches are messy… I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Jon, you saved my life,” Dany said, and gave him back the canteen.

He took it and sat on the floor again. “What happened to you? The last time I saw you, you were riding with a party of rangers to go beyond the Wall and now I found you dying in the woods this side of the Wall. Have you deserted? Did anyone find out?”

Both.

Dany looked at him and suddenly felt weary to her bones. Tired of lying and hiding, and did it matter at that point? The Old Bear and Maester Aemon probably thought her dead or that she had succeeded on her way to Bear Island. What the men of the Night’s Watch thought or knew made no difference to her. Except…

“Pyp… Did he make it? Is he safe?” Dany asked and felt relief overcome when Jon nodded his head.

“He’s scared shitless but alright. He thinks you're dead, everybody does,” Jon told her. He was looking at her with a million questions on his eyes and Dany thought that perhaps it was time for him to have some answers. First, she needed a few herself.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“You do not answer my questions, why should I answer yours?” Jon replied, of course he was defiant. She had avoided him since that night he had confronted her about her identity as a girl, she had not answered his questions, and then she left.

“I will tell you all, if you tell me what you’re doing here. You are not the first to find me and I need to be safe. You could lie, but I don’t think you will,” Dany told him.

Jon weighted her words, looked at the dried blood on the floor, held her eyes on his own. And Dany felt that stare like she had in the very few times it had happened before. All that time they spent together since his arrival at Castle Black she had wondered if he felt the same, if he saw the reflection on her eyes, if he felt that loneliness and search for belonging. Sometimes she wondered if it was her mind playing tricks with her, but mostly she felt like he could somehow understand. None of that had mattered before for her walls had been built high and strong and it protected her. And it should not matter now…

“They killed my father,” Jon said after a moment. “The Lannisters. They named him a traitor and took his head off. My brother marched south with his bannermen, they’re at war and I’ll find him and fight by his side.”

“You deserted,” Dany replied, almost quietly. She could see the guilt on Jon, it was probably killing him. And for a family as honorable as the Starks, breaking a vow was a very serious matter. Dany could not help but wonder what will Robb Stark say to that when Jon reach his army?

“I made my choice and I will live with it,” he said. He had a faraway look, as if he was not there with her. “Maester Aemon talked to me, told me to choose. Told me his story…” Jon trailed off and looked at her, at her hair.

“Yes, I know that story,” Dany said. “And your father was an honorable man, a good man… I’m sorry for your loss, Jon. He saved me, I owed him much.”

Jon’s eyes snapped at attention and he looked at her as if he could not quite believe what she had just said. Carefully he asked, “Who are you?”

“I was born during a storm in Dragonstone. My mother died giving birth to me, I never knew my father or her, or both my older brothers. I was a baby when you father found us and took me with him North, my brother Viserys he allowed to flee across the Narrow Sea and so later he died there, I was four maybe, I’m not sure… My brother Rhaegar died at the Trident killed by Robert Baratheon, your father’s friend… For quite some time I could not reconcile having a life debt to a man who had helped to bring down my family. It is a tricky thing is it not, honor? Even now, especially now… I still wonder if it was wrong of me, if my father and mother would have been disappointed, if my brothers would have done it differently… But when I think of Benjen and how he cared for me I feel nothing other than gratitude. And Lord Eddard saved me when he had the choice and so that is what matter is it not? They kept me safe against all odds and they raised me, in a way. Lord Eddard never told me why, neither did Benjen, all they did was keep me hidden, safe and so that was how I grew up. Moving from one place to another across the North. I had a Septa with me and no one else. She taught me to read and write, and the seven Gods the South worshipped and about my family’s history. See, she worked on Dragonstone before, serving my mother. Then she met a man, married, became owner of a whorehouse and I was alone because Lord Eddard, of course, did not wanted me to grow up in a place such as that. I missed her so much at the beginning, but that was just another place I had to leave behind. Like Castle Black and every other place that came before it. Lord Eddard went to King’s Landing with the King, and Benjen took me with him, and that is how you met me. It was not an easy road, I had nothing but my name and not even that I could use most of the time.”

“What is your name?” Jon asked, his voice filled with something Dany could not name it. Maybe he did not believe her.

“Daenerys of House Targaryen,” she replied.

“Maester Aemon…?”

“He knows and so does the Old Bear. No one else. Well, no one but you,” Dany searched his eyes and found nothing but curiosity and wonder. She did not mistake it for him being impressed, but the Targaryens were supposedly all gone and he had met two in the past days. It was at the very least a bit confusing. “Lord Commander meant to send me to Bear Island that is why I was sent beyond the Wall, but it did not go as we had planned as you might probably heard of.”

“I did yes, so if that did not work what are you going to do now? Do you have somewhere to go?” Jon asked.

“I am not sure,” Dany was quiet for a while as was Jon.

Maybe he was processing all the information she had given him, she could see he still had questions but was probably uncomfortable to ask right then. They stayed like that until Ghost showed up again. He padded to where Dany was sitting and nuzzled her leg and Jon looked at them curiously. She held her hand and patted his white fur while he looked at her with his red eyes, looking at it now it was much less freighting than before when she was terrified and alone in the woods during the storm. When she dropped her hand, Ghost walked over to where Jon was sitting and laid on the ground by his side. Jon kept looking at her while she looked at Ghost and when she looked up, their eyes met until Jon turned away.

Dany thought then of that night in her little room at Castle Black. How the firelight had played inside his eyes, how he did not judged her and kept the secret even after she was gone.

“How are you feeling?” was his first question. Then he asked about Dark Sister, the eggs he saw in the satchel, Benjen, about beyond the Wall, about the blood on the kitchen floor and when she told him about the black brothers dead in the cells, his eyes hardened and he told her he was sorry, she told him it was not his fault.

Dany asked him about Ghost, Winterfell, about his brother Robb fighting on the South, about Maester Aemon’s words to him to which he preferred keeping to himself. Then, “who do you think they will kill first, the Targaryen or the Night’s Watch deserter?”

Jon had a smile on his face when he answered, “most likely you, since you are both.”

She did not meant to laugh but she did anyway, and Jon looked strangely at her right then, almost as if he was seeing her for the very first time. The girl under all the rags, blue hair and bruises and the boy she had somehow been before. He averted his eyes, patting Ghost’s white fur aimlessly. Dany looked at him one second more and turned away.

 

* * *

 

The head stayed motionless while its mouth opened and closed trying to bite something far out of its reach, the rest of the body was standing, struggling against the ropes. Rast stood even with half his face off. Blue eyes, dead body, dark magic.

Looking at them after what had happened Dany felt nothing. A part of her wondered if she would have felt any different before, but now everything had changed. Old Bear had been right all along, Lady Coni as well. A cold and cruel place was the North, but to Dany men could be cruel everywhere. She was going to have to be even more careful, to never have her guard down, and to suspect of everything and everyone. Much like before but now she was on her own. There was no protection from any Lord, no roof above her head, no disguise and lies to keep inquires away. It was time however. _If I look back I am lost_.

It had snowed some and now a light white carpet covered the ground. The pyre had been made with whatever Dany could find, the wood laid from north to south, from ice to fire and woven branches laid from east to west, from sunrise to sunset. Jon was out hunting, trying to catch something for their supper, Ghost had stayed with her though, looking at what she was doing as if he understood. The hardest part had been freeing the dead men from the cell but she managed, perhaps one lacking his head made it easier. Dany turned her back on the pyre and walked inside the ruins to pick up her eggs. She laid her cloak on the table, fetched Dark Sister and walked out again.

The gold and silver she placed east. The white and green, west. And the red and black in the middle.

When she heard Jon approaching, she stood again.

“What is all this?” he asked. His voice wary and quiet.

“I will burn them,” she replied simply.

“There was no need for any of this, you could-” Dany looked at him then and he fell silent, something in her eyes gave him pause. Jon looked at the eggs among the wood and branches. Before he could say anything else, Dany drew her longsword and walked towards their only horse, holding the rein to bring it closer.

Jon stepped in front of her. “What are you doing?” he said. “This is madness. You cannot mean to-”

“Is it so far from madness to wisdom?” Dany asked.

“Daenerys, you are not thinking straight. This is our only horse and we have many miles to go, I cannot let you do this…” Jon said and it did not quite register then that it was the first time he had called her by her given name. He wanted to argue, but Dany knew she had to do it and so she moved Jon out of the way despite his protests. Ghost was quietly looking at them.

When the blood spilled, the creatures became even louder.

The sun was setting and in the sky the first star was a comet, burning red. Bloodred, fire red, the dragon’s tail. She could not have asked for a better sign.

 _Fire and blood_.

She picked up the torch and thrust it between the logs. The flames whirled and writhed and she could smell the odor of burning flesh. Dany’s lips parted and she found herself holding her breath. The heat beat at the air with great red wings, but Dany stood her ground. She was the blood of the dragon, and the fire was in her. She had sensed the truth of it a while ago and that was the thought inside her mind when she took a step closer. It was not hot enough. Somewhere, she could swear, she heard someone’s voice calling her name but this time Jon had stayed quiet, kept his distance. _Fire cannot kill a dragon_ , she wanted to shout to him. _The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, don’t you see?_ Unafraid, Dany stepped into the firestorm. The flames danced around her fearsome and lovely. Embracing her clothes, her body, her soul. It was so beautiful, Dany knew it and she had felt it before how beautiful could it be.

The first _crack_ was the sound of shattering stone. Burning wood slid down and she was showered with ashes. And something else came crashing down, rolling to land at her feet. The second _crack_ , loud and sharp as thunder. The smoke whirled around her, the logs exploding as the fire touched their hearts. The third _crack_ was as loud as the breaking of the world.

At last, when the fire died and the ground became cool enough to walk, Jon walked to where she was to find her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs, glowing embers and the bones of men and horse.

After so long wondering if she would ever feel warm again, the first thing Dany felt was the absence of the cold. The second was the sharp scent of the smoke. She was naked, covered in soot, her hair all crisped away and yet she was unhurt. When she opened her eyes and looked across the snow, she found red eyes looking right through hers. Ghost was standing not too far, but what got her attention was Jon Snow. His face had the same expression of wonder as in that first time he saw the world from the top of the Wall. His grey eyes, full of that haunting feeling of beauty, were staring at her.

The white and green was sucking at her left breast, the golden one at the right. Her arms cradled them close. The red and black draped across her shoulders, its long neck coiled under her chin. When it saw Jon, it raised its head and looked straight at him, eyes as black as the ending night.

Ghost stayed where he was, but Jon stepped closer to her. He offered his hand to her and it was trembling slightly, Dany saw. She looked up and met his eyes, took his hand and rose to her feet. Jon stood in front of her and the red hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air.

For the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will continue, if you wish to keep reading [follow the series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1059791) for the next chapters :)
> 
> I cannot express how happy the support I've received made me, it was for said support that I managed to not give up on it. Thank you so much for reading, for the kudos, comments, bookmarks. If you'd like to stick with me for more of this, please do, it would mean a lot! Also, any dragon name suggestions? Let me know your thoughts!
> 
> [Nightfort](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Nightfort)  
> [Whitewalls tourney](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Wedding_tourney_at_Whitewalls)  
> Ambrose Butterwell's egg [described here](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dragon_egg)  
> [Red comet](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Red_comet)


End file.
